India records 20,346 new Covid-19 cases, tally at 1.03 cr; recoveries cross 1-crore mark

India reported 20,346 new cases of coronavirus in a span of 24 hours, pushing the overall positive cases in the country to 1,03,95,278, according to an update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

With this, the total number of active cases in the country now stands at 2,28,083.

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As many as 222 Covid-19 patients succumbed to the infection in 24 hours, taking the death toll in the country to 1,50,336.

Meanwhile, out of the total 1,03,95,278 positive cases, there are 1,00,16,859 recovered cases in the country with 19,587 fresh recoveries in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said.

So far, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has tested 9,37,590 samples for Covid-19 on Saturday. The total number of samples tested so far stands at 17,84,00,995, the ICMR informed.

Covid-19 vaccine developments in India

1) A second dry run of the coronavirus vaccination will be held across all states and Union Territories on 8 January, the central government has said.

2) Barring Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, where the exercise had been scheduled for 5 January and 7 January, respectively, the vaccine dry run will cover all districts across other states.

3) The aim of the drill is to test the linkages between planning and implementation and identify the challenges. It will also test the operational feasibility in the use of CoWIN application -- a digital platform to roll out and scale up the vaccination drive -- in a field environment.

4) A meeting of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan with the health ministers of states and Union territories is scheduled to take place today at 12:30 pm to guide them on conducting the dry run.

5) Also, 71 people in the country have been identified as carrying the new UK virus. As per the government data, 28 infections have been reported from Delhi, 30 in Pune, 11 from Bengaluru, 3 in Hyderabad and 1 from Kolkata.