New Delhi (TIP): India on Friday, Dec 11,  registered 29,398 new cases and 414 deaths in the last 24 hours, which pushed the overall tally and death toll to 9,796,769 and 142,186, respectively. The total active cases continued to remain below 400,000 for a sixth consecutive day while the total number of people recovering from the disease reached nearly 9.3 million, according to the Union health ministry’s dashboard.

This is the second time in three days that the country’s daily coronavirus tally went below the 30,000-mark. As many as 26,567 people tested positive for the infection on December 8. On November 17, the daily cases were less than 30,000 for the first time in four months. Over 15 million samples have been tested till now with 922,959 samples tested on Wednesday. Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala continue to add the most number of infections to the total caseload. Maharashtra on Thursday logged 3,824 coronavirus cases with health officials stating that the state is not seeing a potential second wave till now. From the last seven days, Maharashtra has reported 25,585 cases and 373 deaths with a daily average of 3,655 cases and 53 deaths.

Delhi’s total caseload is nearing the 600,000-mark with 2,463 cases added in the last 24 hours. The active cases have climbed to 20,546 and 569,216 have recovered so far. Health minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday had said that the third wave of the disease was not over yet but it was definitely on the wane. The positivity rate further dropped to 2.46 per cent and has been below 5 per cent for nine consecutive days.

Meanwhile, the global Covid-19 caseload has climbed over 70 million with 1,588,437 deaths and 49,148,338 recoveries. The United States, which is the worst-hit nation, added record 3,253 deaths on Wednesday which pushed the toll to nearly 300,000. More than half of the states in the country have recently introduced or resumed restrictions to try to curtail the rampant spread of the disease.

Survey identifies most vulnerable for Covid shot

Data collected during the currently underway door-to-door survey in hot spots and containment zones will be used to identify those above the age of 50 years and those with comorbidities as both categories of people will be next in line, after the health care and front-line workers, to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, sources in the health department said.

The government has already asked all hospitals, nursing homes, and stand-alone clinics in the city to get their employees registered for the vaccine shots. “More than 2 lakh registrations have come for the first trial of the Covid-19 vaccine in Delhi. The priority is health care and front-line workers. After which the focus will be on the aged, and subsequently, the entire population of Delhi, said health minister Satyendar Jain.

According to the recommendations of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC), 10 million health care workers, 20 million front-line workers, and 270 million people over the age of 50 years and those with comorbidities will be the priority groups to receive the vaccine.

The vaccination drives could be conducted simultaneously for all three priority groups, depending on availability of the shots. Currently, India’s regulator is looking at emergency use authorisation for three vaccines – one, developed by Pfizer and BioNtech; second, by Oxford and AstraZeneca which will be manufactured and distributed in India by the Serum Institute of India; and the third, the indigenously developed Covaxin by Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research.