Coronavirus Updates: India Prepares For Vaccine Rollout Amid Declining Cases

New York state reported more than 200 daily Covid-19 deaths for the first time since May. The state’s hospitalisations are mounting even as much of the Northeast has started to get a reprieve. Florida also reported over 200 deaths, the most in one day since August.

France will extend a 6 p.m. curfew across the country. Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to tighten Germany’s lockdown as cases surpassed 2 million. In Brazil, severe oxygen shortages at hospitals in the Amazon prompted local authorities to impose a curfew, and some patients are being airlifted to other states to deal with the onslaught of a second coronavirus wave.

Globally over 92.7 million have contracted the coronavirus infection since the beginning of the pandemic and over 2 million have died.

Active coronavirus cases in India continued to decline at a time when the central and state governments are a day away from the rollout of an immunisation programme in the second worst hit country in the world.

India reported 15,590 new cases in a matter of 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data as of 8 a.m. on Jan.15. That’s lower than the 15,975 patients who recovered from the virus in the same time period, taking active cases to 2.13 lakh. India had over 10 lakh live infections in mid-September.

The country is fast approaching the 1-year anniversary of the pandemic reaching its shores. The first Covid-19 case was recorded on Jan. 30, 2020, in Kerala -- a student of the Wuhan University. Since then, authorities have recorded nearly 1.05 crore confirmed coronavirus cases and over 1.01 crore recoveries. More than 1.51 lakh people have died from the infection.

Key Figures

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases: 1,05,27,683
• Active cases: 2,13,027
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 1,01,62,738
• Deaths: 1,51,918
• Number of fresh cases in the last 24 hours: 15,590
• One-day recoveries: 15,975
• One-day deaths: 191

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch India's Covid-19 vaccination drive on Jan. 16 via video conferencing and adequate doses of the two made-in-India vaccines have been delivered to all states and Union Territories, the government said on Thursday.

This will be the world's largest vaccination programme covering the entire length and breadth of the country and all preparations are in place to initiate the programme on the principles of 'Jan Bhagidari', the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

A total of 3,006 session sites across all states and UTs will be virtually connected during the launch and around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site on the first day, the statement said.

However, pregnant and lactating women should not be administered the shots as they have not been part of any anti-coronavirus vaccine clinical trial so far, the health ministry said.

"Interchangeability of Covid-19 vaccines is not permitted. Second dose should also be of the same Covid-19 vaccine which was administered as the first dose," the letter written by Manohar Agnani, Additional Secretary, Union health ministry said.

Read the full letter regarding contradictions and precautions for the vaccine here.