India reports 1,580 new Covid cases in last 24 hours

New Delhi: India reported 1,580 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday.
The active caseload in the country stood at 18,009. According to the ministry, 3,167 recoveries from the disease were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries in the country up to 4,44,28,417. The recovery rate presently stands at 98.77 per cent.
The daily positivity rate is 1.23 per cent and the weekly positivity rate stands at 1.49 per cent, the ministry said.
As many as 1,593 doses of Covid vaccines were administered during this period. A total of 220.66 crore vaccines have been administered in the country so far.
A total of 92.83 crore tests have been conducted so far and 1,28,764 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, the ministry added.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently announced that the COVID-19 pandemic is over as a global health emergency.
However, the viral load and emergence of any new variant still need to be monitored, said Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS).
Speaking to ANI, Dr Mishra said, "Corona is already in the endemic stage. The level of infection we saw recently from Bengaluru data was more significant than the third wave and would have had a big problem. However, it did not happen because of vaccination, or hybrid immunity. Clinically, the virus is more infectious, but less harmful as it affects the body like the common cold." (ANI)