Amid the concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting at 6.30 pm today to review the pandemic situation in the country.
India has reported 7,495 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, Union Health Ministry informed on Thursday.
While several countries are rolling out of a booster to tackle the new vaccine evading Omicron variant, few of them are opting for lockdowns. China is redoubling efforts to control new virus outbreaks with a lockdown of the 13 million residents of the northern city of Xi'an following a spike in coronavirus cases.
Australia on Thursday reported a major spike in coronavirus infections, prompting the worst-hit state of New South Wales to reimpose mask wearing indoors, a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison rejected lockdowns or mask mandates for the entire country to slow the spread of the omicron variant.
However, there are no talks on lockdown in India. As several fake news on lockdown have been doing rounds on social media, PIB has clarified that the government has made no such announcement regarding the lockdown. It also appealed to people to not share such news.
Meanwhile, Karnataka on Thursday reported 12 new cases of Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, taking its tally in the state to 31, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said.
India on Thursday achieved a new milestone in the fight against Covid pandemic as over 60 per cent of the total eligible population is now vaccinated with both doses of vaccines, said the government.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya lauded public health workers, medical professionals, and citizens from all across the country for making this feat possible.
"Accomplishing more new feats! Congratulations India," tweeted Mandaviya. In the same tweet, he said, "Aided by public participation & dedicated efforts of our health workers, over 60% of the eligible population fully vaccinated now."
Meanwhile, the country's Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 139.70 crore with the administration of 70,17,671 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours as per the health ministry provisional reports till 7 a.m. on Thursday. This has been achieved through 1,47,94,783 sessions.
India on Thursday registered 7,495 fresh Covid cases and 434 deaths in a span of 24 hours. With the addition of the new deaths, the total death toll has climbed to 4,78,759.
India's active caseload is presently at 78,291. The active caseload constitutes 0.23 per cent of the country's total positive cases, which is the lowest since March 2020.
(With inputs from agencies)
