India’s daily new coronavirus cases remained below the 2-lakh mark for the first time after 40 days, with 196,427 fresh infections, and 3,741 deaths being recorded in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. The country crossed the grim milestone of recording over 2 lakh cases in a day on 15 April.
According to the ministry, the country recorded 326,850 fresh recoveries in the 24-hour period, outnumbering new cases. The cumulative caseload in India now stands at 2,69,48,874 including 25,86,782 active cases. The death toll mounted to 3,07,231, while the recovery tally reached 2,40,54,861.
Karnataka, which has recently overtaken Maharashtra in the number of active infections, has now 440,435 active infections, making the state worst-hit by the pandemic. Maharashtra follows with 327,580 active cases.
India’s daily Covid-19 positivity rate dropped to 9.54 per cent, according to the Health Ministry’s data on Tuesday, down from 12.66 per cent on Monday. Eight states including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh account for 71.62 per cent of India’s total active infections, it had said.
Keeping the overall national trend, the national capital Delhi recorded 1,568 Covid cases on Tuesday, at a positivity rate of 2.14%. The cases are slightly higher than on Monday, which saw 1,550 cases, but the positivity rate is lower. The daily death count was also significantly lower at 156.
However, even as the daily Covid-19 cases have seen a dip, offering hope that a second wave is ebbing, state governments continue to struggle for vaccines. Such is the desperation that several state governments and even cities such as Mumbai have launched global tenders or sought expressions of interest from firms such as Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson for urgent supplies.
But, as Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told The Sunday Guardian on Monday that these firms said they would not be dealing with state level authorities.
Punjab’s efforts to get directly from manufacturers also came to nothing, as Pfizer refused to sell its vaccine directly to states, saying it would only deal with the Central government.
Uttarakhand extended its global tender till the end of the month after failing to get any bid, local media reported on Tuesday.
Mumbai’s civic body on Tuesday claimed that it had received bids for the supply of Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sputnik in response to its global tender for one crore vaccine doses. A Czech company has bid to supply Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots, said a top official, but Pfizer asserted that it has not authorised anyone to do so.
As per reports, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) had floated global tenders on 12 May to buy vaccines at Rs 700 crore. The deadline ended on Tuesday.
“In response to MCGM’s Global Expression of Interest for procurement of one crore vaccine doses, I wish to inform that eight bids have been received till date. One bid is for Pfizer/AstraZeneca and the remaining seven bids are for Sputnik,” said Iqbal Singh Chahal, commissioner of the civic body.
Shortly after his comments, Pfizer put out a disclaimer, saying: “Neither Pfizer nor any of its affiliates globally, including in India, have authorised anyone to import/market/distribute Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. We continue to have discussions with the government of India towards making our vaccine available for use nationally.”