India sees 12,516 Covid cases, 501 deaths in 24 hours

A total of 12,516 new Covid-19 cases, and 501 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours in India. Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday said the government does not want to make haste about administering COVID-19 vaccine to children and any decision in this regard will be taken based on expert opinion.

India logged 12,516 new coronavirus infections, taking the country's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,44,14,186, while the active cases declined to 1,37,416, the lowest in 267 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. The death toll climbed to 4,62,690 with 501 fresh fatalities, including 419 from Kerala, according to the data updated at 8 am.

Of the 419 deaths in Kerala, 47 were reported in the last few days and 372 were designated as Covid deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and Supreme Court directions, a Kerala government release said on Thursday.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 35 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 138 consecutive days now. The active cases comprise 0.40 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.26 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.