India logs 38,079 fresh Covid cases

New Delhi: India recorded 38,079 new Coronavirus cases, which took the infection tally to 3,10,64,908, while the death toll reached 4,13,091 with 560 more fatalities, according to Union Health ministry data updated on Saturday.

The active cases have declined to 4,24,025 and comprise 1.36 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 97.31 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

It said that active COVID-19 cases have decreased by 6,397 in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.91 per cent and it has been less than three per cent for 26 consecutive days, it said.

The weekly positivity rate stands at 2.10 per cent, according to the Health ministry.

The number of people who have recovered from the disease has risen to 3,02,27,792, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.33 per cent, the data stated.

The total vaccine doses administered has reached 39.96 crore under the nationwide vaccination drive.

Meanwhile, the Centre has placed an order to procure 66 crore more doses of Covishield and Covaxin to be supplied between August and December this year, at a revised price of Rs 205 and Rs 215 per dose, respectively, excluding taxes, official sources said.

They said 37.5 crore of Covishield doses from the Serum Institute of India and 28.5 crore Covaxin doses from Bharat Biotech will be procured by December.

"An order to procure 66 crore more doses of COVID-19 vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — to be supplied between August and December, at a revised price of Rs 205 and Rs 215 per dose, respectively, excluding taxes, has been placed," the source said.

The price of each dose of Covishield amounts to Rs 215.25 and Covaxin Rs 225.75, including taxes, it said.

The Union Health ministry which was procuring both the vaccines at Rs 150 per dose, had indicated that the prices would be revised after the new COVID-19 vaccine procurement policy came into effect from June 21. Under the new policy, the ministry will procure 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the drug manufacturers in the country.

While the Centre has asked both the vaccine manufacturing firms to scale up their production, the manufacturers had indicated that getting Rs 150 for each dose while making investments to ramp up the production was not viable for them, sources said.