India added 39,742 new cases of coronavirus infection taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,13,71,901, while the death toll rose to 4,20,551 with 535 fresh fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.
The active cases have declined to 4,08,212 and comprise 1.30% of the total infections and the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.36%, the data updated at 8 a.m. showed.
A decline of 765 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours
Meanwhile, for the first time, five cases of `Kappa’ variant of coronavirus have been detected in Gujarat, the state health department said on Saturday.
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Three cases were found in Jamnagar, two in Godhra in Pahchmahal district and one in Mehsana, it said in a release.
Kappa is a “variant of interest” but not a “variant of concern” as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the release said
About 40 crore people in the country are still vulnerable, as per the latest sero survey. This also means that roughly two-thirds of all Indians over six, or 67.6 per cent of the population, have antibodies against the coronavirus.
India is likely to start vaccinating children by September, according to Dr Guleria. “Hopefully, by September, we should start vaccinating children, and that will be a big boost as far as breaking the chain of transmission is concerned,” Dr Guleria told NDTV on Saturday.
