Covid-19 in India: Over 1.27 lakh cases, 2,795 deaths in last 24 hours

India recorded 1,27,510 new Covid-19 cases and 2,795 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to data from the Union Health Ministry, reports The Indian Express. 

The ministry said cases have been declining for the past few days, with daily new cases being the lowest in 54 days. The total number of coronavirus cases now stand at 2,81,75,044 while the death toll has reached 3,31,895. There are 18,95,520 active cases at present while as many as 2,59,47,629 people have recovered from the disease. The recovery rate continues to increase and stands at 92.09 per cent on Tuesday. The weekly positivity rate currently has been pegged at 8.64 per cent while the daily positivity rate has dropped to 6.62 per cent. A total of 21,60,46,638 vaccine doses have been administered so far, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to his non-BJP counterparts in 11 states and called for a united effort in demanding that the Centre procure Covid-19 vaccines required by the states and distribute them free of cost. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has, meanwhile, shot a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to give free vacccines to the state.

On the vaccine front, the Uttar Pradesh government will today launch ‘Mission June’ campaign, a massive vaccination campaign that aims to inoculate over one crore people in the state against Covid-19 in the next 30 days.

In other news, the COVID-19 variant first found in India will henceforth be referred to as the “Delta variant”, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday. It also said that it will be using Greek alphabets as labels for the categories of mutations.