Country will not have to wait too long for COVID-19 vaccine: PM

Lucknow/New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the country will not have to wait too long for the Coronavirus vaccine even as he cautioned people that there should be no laxity as far as prevention of the infection is concerned.

Speaking at the inauguration of the construction of the Agra Metro project via video conferencing, the Prime Minister said: "One thing, which I will definitely remind you is that the wait for a vaccine is on but in the past few days, I have met scientists, and feel that the country will not have to wait too long for it."

"However, there should be no laxity from our side as far as prevention of the infection is concerned. Masks and a distance of two yards are very necessary," he said.

Meanwhile, the active caseload in the country has fallen below the 4 lakh-mark at 3,96,729, the lowest after 140 days, comprising just 4.1 per cent of total infections reported so far, the Union Health ministry said on Monday.

The total active cases were 3,90,459 on July 20, the ministry said.

Continuing with the trend of the last 10 days, India has reported more daily recoveries than daily new cases in a span of 24 hours. While 32,981 new positive cases were found in the country in a day, 39,109 new recoveries were registered during the same period.

Delhi on Monday reported 1,674 fresh COVID-19 cases — the lowest daily spike in over a month and a half, as 63 more deaths from the virus were added to the city's toll, which climbed to 9,706. The daily positivity rate also came down to 3.15 per cent, which Health minister Satyendar Jain said was the lowest in six months, as 53,200 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.

Night curfew in Ahmedabad was extended on Monday till further notice to check the spread of the virus in the Gujarat city, police said.

The move comes a day after Ahmedabad reported 306 new COVID-19 cases, the highest in Gujarat, taking the tally in the district to 52,030, as per official figures.