India recorded 60,753 new covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Saturday, taking the country’s total to over 2.98 crore. Active cases further declined to 7.6 lakh. With 1,647 new fatalities, the death toll is 3.85 lakh. Kerala, with 11,361 new cases, was the only state to have reported more than 10,000 infections.

Preliminary data from India’s healthcare workers have shown that Covid-19 vaccination reduced chances of hospitalisation by 75 to 80 per cent and also reduced the need for oxygen therapy and critical care, the Union Ministry said. In 8,991 vaccinated health workers, the role of vaccines in preventing critical hospitalisation was as high as 94 per cent.

In other news, sports legend Milkha Singh passed away on Friday night after a month-long battle with the novel coronavirus. Former national volleyball captain and Singh’s wife, Nirmal Kaur had succumbed to the infection earlier this week.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday the Delta variant of Covid-19, first found in India, was on its way to become a dominant virus mutation globally due to its highly transmissible nature. The global body has accepted Bharat Biotech’s Expression of Interest (EoI) for Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin and scheduled a pre-submission meeting on June 23. In this, the manufacturer will have an opportunity to put forth a summary on overall quality of the jab.

Source: The Indian Express