India records 37,566 new cases; 907 more deaths
New Delhi: The single-day rise in fresh cases was recorded below 40,000 after 102 days, bringing India's COVID-19 infection tally to 3,03,16,897, while the daily fatalities remained below 1,000 for the second consecutive day.
India saw 37,566 new cases being reported in a day, while the COVID-19 death toll rose to 3,97,637 with 907 daily fatalities, the lowest in 77 days.
The number of active cases has further declined to 5,52,659, comprising 1.82 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.87 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.
A net decline of 20,335 cases has been recorded in the active cases in a span of 24 hours.
Also, 17,68,008 tests were conducted on Monday, taking the total cumulative tests done so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 40,81,39,287, while the daily positivity rate has declined to 2.12 per cent. It has been less than 5 per cent for 22 consecutive days, the ministry said.
The weekly positivity rate has declined to 2.74 per cent.
Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 47th consecutive day. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,93,66,601, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.31 per cent, the data stated.
Meanwhile, India's drug regulator DCGI has granted permission to Mumbai-based Cipla to import Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for restricted emergency use in the country.
Moderna's vaccine will be the fourth COVID-19 jab to be available in India after Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik.
"An application was received from Moderna through their Indian partner Cipla following which Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine has been granted restricted emergency use authorisation by the drug regulator.
"This new permission for restricted emergency use potentially opens up a clear possibility of this vaccine being imported to India in the near future," NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr V K Paul said at a press conference.
It became the fourth vaccine, he said.
"Our efforts to invite and to have other internationally developed vaccines specifically Pfizer and J&J also continue. Those processes are on. We are also looking at increasing the production of availability of vaccines that are being manufactured in our country," Paul added.
On whether a commercial deal has been struck with Moderna or it is a donation and goodwill gesture by the US, he said, "It is important for us to say that a regulatory step has been taken in the matter and it opens pathways for import in technically any of the modalities you are referring to. Let us see how these opportunities will be used for importing vaccines into our country."
He clarified that there will be no need for bridging study and said this modification in the regulations happened several weeks ago. First 100 people who will be administered the doses will be watched, he said.
On temperature of storage of Moderna, Paul said, "Up to seven months storage is -25 to -15 degrees so medium term storage is -20 degrees. An unopened vial can be kept in 2 to 8 degrees in a normal cold chain for 30 days. So seven months storage - long term is -20 degrees and normal cold chain conditions for a period of 30 days. It has two doses which are given 28 days apart."
"Moderna is coming as a ready to inject form there is no manufacturing base as of now in India. We also hope Moderna will produce this vaccine on Indian soil going forward," he said.
On the issue of indemnity, Paul said, "It is being addressed and being taken up for examination. It is under consideration."
Earlier on Tuesday, an EU official said that individual member states of the European Union will have the option to accept vaccines authorised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) like Covishield for obtaining the bloc's digital COVID certificate or 'Green Pass'. The official said the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has not received an authorisation request till Monday for the Covishield vaccine manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII). There have been apprehensions in India that people who took Covishield jabs are unlikely to be eligible to travel to the European Union member states under its 'Green Pass' scheme.
