He urged people not to panic and clarified that there was no change in the guidelines for international air travel so far.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 31 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 134 consecutive days now.
As many as 29,689 new coronavirus infections took the country's tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,14,40,951 while 415 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,21,382, the data updated at 8 am showed.
For eight days in a row, the active cases of COVID-19 remained below 9 lakh.
The number of active cases has declined to 4,05,513, accounting for 1.3 per cent of the total caseload, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.36 per cent, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.
A third wave of COVID-19 -- if it occurs -- is unlikely to be as severe as the second wave given the extent of spread of coronavirus infections that has already taken place in the country, according to a study.
India saw a single day rise of 41,383 coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,12,57,720, while the active cases registered an increase for the second consecutive day and were recorded at 4,09,394, according to the Union health ministry data.
The vaccine candidate -- 'Covaxin' -- is being indigenously developed by the Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The 446 new fatalities include 358 from Kerala and 26 from Maharashtra.
Over 21 per cent of the population, aged 10 years and above, showed evidence of past exposure to COVID-19 in the Indian Council of Medical Research's latest national serosurvey, the government said on Thursday, noting that a large proportion of people are still vulnerable to the infection.
The positivity rate has been less than three per cent for 25 consecutive days.
In a letter to states and UTs on Monday, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja advised them to pay attention to this aspect immediately and increase the testing in a strategic manner keeping in view the trend of case positivity in specific areas.
A circular-cum-advisory issued by the state Directorate of Health Services last week said the second wave of the pandemic is likely in January-February, and asked officials concerned to ramp up COVID-19 testing in the state.
The death toll climbed to 4,03,281 with 553 daily fatalities, the lowest in around 91 days.
A total of 8,209 cases of the Omicron variant have been detected across 29 states and union territories, out of which 3,109 have recovered or migrated.
The active cases have further declined to 4,82,071 and comprise 1.58 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid recovery rate has improved to 97.11 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
A total of 94,612 people recovered from coronavirus in a span of 24 hours, taking the national recovery rate to 79.68 per cent, while 92,605 people tested positive for the disease during the period, taking the total COVID-19 cases to 54,00,619.
The active cases -- 4,95,533 -- were recorded below five lakh after 97 days and comprised 1.62 per cent of the total infections.
There has been a 4.83 per cent increase in Omicron cases since Thursday.
Poonawalla, during an interaction with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through a video conference, expressed optimism that the COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by October-November this year and the next phase of the trial can start in mid-August in India. According to a press note released by the CMO, Poonawalla has informed that the Oxford University vaccine has shown promising results in the first phase trial.
According to the data published at 7 am, cumulatively 33.28 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive.
'We must not compromise with the standard, the quality. We don't need to be the first to launch a drug but what we need is a Made in India vaccine that the entire world can rely on'
SP leader Akhilesh Yadav reacted quickly to the allegation, tweeting that the red caps are a 'red alert' for the Bharatiya Janata Party itself as they will oust that party from power.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 19 straight days.
4,033 cases of the Omicron variant reported across 27 states and union territories so far
India logged 18,132 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 215 days, taking the country's total tally of cases to 3,39,71,607, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98 per cent, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Monday.
India logged 18,166 new coronavirus infections taking the country's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,39,53,475, while the active cases declined to 2,30,971, the lowest in 208 days, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.
The guidelines released on Friday come into force from January 11 and will remain effective till further government orders.
India saw a single-day rise of 19,740 COVID-19 infections, taking the country's total tally of cases to 3,39,35,309, while the number of active cases has declined to 2,36,643, the lowest in 206 days, according to Union health ministry data updated on Saturday.
The active cases comprise 0.72 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020.
India added 18,833 new coronavirus infections taking the country's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,38,71,881, while the active cases declined to 2,46,687, the lowest in 203 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections have remained below 30,000 for 11 straight days.
Daily cases of coronavirus in the country remained below 30,000 for the tenth straight day with 20,799 fresh infections recorded in a single day, while the active cases declined to 2,64,458, the lowest in 200 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.
"It is unrealistic to expect that COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country," the report said.
The number of active cases has reduced to 17,13,413, accounting for 6.02 per cent of the total number of cases.
The death toll climbed to 4,48,573 with 234 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
Experts say herd immunity is said to have been developed in a population segment if at least 50-60 per cent of those are found to have the presence of antibodies in a sero-prevalence survey.
India logged 26,727 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,37,66,707, while the active cases declined to 2,75,224, the lowest in 196 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.
The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 4,48,062 with 311 daily fatalities being recorded, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The number of active cases has declined to 2,92,206, accounting for 0.87 per cent of the total number of cases -- the lowest since March 2020 -- while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.81 per cent, the highest since March last year, the ministry said.
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