The death toll climbed to 20,160 as 467 more people succumbed to the disease.
Experts believe that under-reporting is likely to cause an underestimation of the spread of the disease.
India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 6,48,315 on Saturday, while the death toll rose to 18,655 with 442 new fatalities.
It took 110 days for coronavirus infections in the country to reach one lakh, while just 44 days more to go past the six-lakh mark. With a steady rise, the number of recoveries stands at 3,59, 859 while one patient has migrated. There are 2,26,947 active cases of coronavirus infection presently in the country.
The aim of the mission is to accelerate the development of at least six vaccine candidates and ensure that they are licenced and introduced in market for emergency use at the earliest.
"Singer Kanika Kapoor on Monday expressed her desire to KGMU doctors to donate plasma. After this, she was called and her blood sample was taken for testing. If everything is found appropriate in the report (of the blood test), she will be called on Monday evening or Tuesday to donate her plasma," Tulika Chandra, Head of Department of Transfusion Medicine, KGMU told PTI.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 15,859. While 3,959 people have been cured and discharged, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
Ramdev's herbal medicine company Patanjali Ayurved has launched 'Coronil tablet and Swasari vati' medicines claiming they can cure the highly contagious disease within seven days.
The number of recoveries continued to surge with 2,13,830 patients cured so far, while there were 1,68,269 active cases, according to the updated official figures at 8 am.
Uttar Pradesh, last year, recorded the most 2,60,028 deaths attributable to air pollution, followed by Maharashtra at 1,08,038 and Bihar 96,967, it said.
Experts feel the figures are modest for a count of the size of 1.3 billion and "much more number of tests" are needed to combat COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
Experts say a large part of the expenditure in April was spent on heads such as creating infrastructure for testing capacity and procuring testing kits, among other things.
While the new COVID cases and total active cases are going up, the administration is focusing on testing, contact tracing and treatment.
The first vaccine candidate will be an intra-muscular one, followed by intra-dermal and nasal ones, depending on test results.
India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the United States, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom, according to the Johns Hopkins University data.
Joint Secretary in the health ministry Lav Agarwal said 154 new positive cases of the disease have been reported due to the transit-related history of those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. These include 23 new cases from Jammu and Kashmir, 20 from Telengana, 18 from Delhi, 65 from Tamil Nadu, 17 from Andhra Pradesh, nine from Andaman and Nicobar Islands and two from Puducherry.
Vardhan stated the government is taking full precautions in human trials of vaccines and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 under the chairmanship of Dr V K Paul, member-health, NITI Aayog, is drawing up a detailed strategy on how to immunize the majority of the population.
This is the fourth consecutive day when COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 45,000.
Alleging that the candidate vaccine was not safe, he has also sought cancelling approval for its testing, 'manufacture and distribution', failing which legal action would be taken.
The death toll rose to 5,394 after a record single-day spike of 230 fatalities in the 24 hours since Sunday 8 am, the Union Health Ministry said in its morning update. It showed the number of confirmed cases rising by 8,392 to 1,90,535. However, a PTI tally of figures announced by states and union territories, as of 9.35 pm, showed a higher death toll of 5,501.
According to SOP, those testing positive will be isolated in a separate unit of an institutional facility.
It took 110 days for the COVID-19 cases in the country to reach 1 lakh and just 56 days more to go past the 9-lakh mark.
'Strengthen hospital capacity, look after patients who need care, primarily ICU care...' 'Train doctors, get PPE, get ventilators, have treatment protocols in place.'
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 92,97,749 samples were tested for COVID-19 up to July 2, with 2,41,576 of those tested on Thursday.
'If the trial succeeds, it will become the success of Ayurveda.' 'If it's a failure, it's my failure alone.'
India has purchased 500 million doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, one billion from the United States company Novavax and 100 million doses of the Sputnik V candidate from Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute, according to the US-based Duke University Global Health Innovation Center.
There were apprehensions in the SII about rival Bharat Biotech's 'indigenous' tag, opening up shortcuts for it. One senior person, who was very familiar with the sector, told me, 'The message has gone out from the very top. Somani (V G Somani -- drug controller general of India) has told me "Bharat ka karna hai".' A fascinating excerpt from Abantika Ghosh's Billions Under Lockdown: The Inside Story Of India's Fight Against COVID-19.
The GoM was apprised that as of now, the death rate is around 3.1 per cent while the recovery rate is more than 20 per cent, which is comparatively better than most of the countries and may be taken as a positive effect of the lockdown in the country, along with the cluster management and containment strategy.
India registered over 10,000 cases for the eighth day in a row.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at the BJP, saying one has to refer to the state-wise election schedule to know when one will have access to the vaccine. The BJP, however, said health is a state subject and its manifesto is for Bihar, not for the entire country, where it has promised that the state will buy the vaccine for its people.
According to the guidelines, all travellers would need to give an undertaking on the online portal www.newdelhiairport.in that they would undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days, that is, seven days paid institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by seven days isolation at home with self-monitoring of health.
Now, only the United States, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom are ahead of it. The number of active COVID-19 cases stands at 1,20,406, according to the health ministry. A total of 1,19,292 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
As India prepares to launch its vaccine drive on January 16, here is a look at the options:
Addressing the daily press briefing on the actions taken, preparedness and updates on COVID-19, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal said 92 new cases and four deaths due to coronavirus have been reported in India since Sunday, taking total cases to 1,071 and the number of deaths to 29.
The number of recoveries stands at 6,12,814, while there are 3,31,146 active cases of coronavirus infection presently in the country. "Thus, around 63.25 per cent of patients have recovered so far," an official said.
'Now, the government will have to ensure even stronger surveillance to curb the infection but if that will be done is something to be observed'
'We need to prove to the world that quality vaccines and R&D are possible in India.'
The Indian government on Wednesday said it was focusing on bringing back Indians stranded in coronavirus-hit Italy and Iran after screening them.
India's willingness to play a big role in the manufacturing and to allow some of those vaccines to go to other developing countries will be an absolutely critical part of containing the pandemic, said Gates.
While Ramdev claimed that Ayurved-based 'Coronil and Swasari' medicine have shown 100 per cent favourable results during clinical trials on COVID-19 infected patients except those on a life support system, the Ayush Ministry sought from the company detailed report on composition, testing and other data of the drugs.
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