COVID-19 News Updates

Individuals 12 years of age and older with weaker immune systems such as those who have undergone solid organ transplantation are also eligible for the shots at least 4 months after receipt of a fifth booster dose.

The last 24 hours saw a total of 6,24,022COVID-19 tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 78.85 crore cumulative tests.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 80,019,128 and 978,648, according to the CSSE.

During the recent Omicron surge, those who were boosted were 21 times less likely to die from Covid-19 compared to those who were unvaccinated, and 7 times less likely to be hospitalised, according to the CDC.

As per the recommendation of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), precaution dose is administered to healthcare workers, frontline workers, and people aged 60 years and above since January 10,2022, she said.

India's active caseload has further declined to 15,378, constituting 0.04 per cent of the country's total positive cases.

US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 79,995,485 and 977,687, according to the CSSE.

The other countries with over 10 million cases are Brazil (29,849,740) France (25,216,913), the UK (20,848,913), Germany (19,492,672), Russia (17,504,537), Turkey (14,800,677), Italy (14,364,723), South Korea (12,003,054) and Spain (11,451,676), the CSSE figures showed.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.29 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was 0.26 per cent, according to the health ministry.

A total of 1,826 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, increasing the cumulative tally to 4,24,82,262.

US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 79,946,097 and 976,652, according to the CSSE.

The study, published in The Lancet journal, indicated that patients with co-infection of SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, and influenza viruses were over four times more likely to require ventilation support and 2.4 times more likely to die than if they only had Covid

The number of active cases of the infection has declined to 16,741, the lowest in 702 days and accounting for 0.04 per cent of the total caseload.

US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 79,936,775 and 976,499, according to the CSSE.

Globally, BA.2 made up about 86 per cent of cases reported as updated on the open access database GISAID between February 16 and March 17, the agency said in a report this week.