India reports 1,61,736 new COVID-19 cases, 879 deaths

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India reported over 1.61 lakh new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.

With the country reporting 1,61,736 new COVID-19 cases, the total number of cases has gone up to 1,36,89,453.

In the last 24 hours, 879 COVID-related deaths were reported in the country. This takes the COVID death toll to 1,71,058.

The active number of cases stands at 12,64,698.

In the last 24 hours, 97,168 people recovered from the disease. With this, the total recoveries reached 1,22,53,697.The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 10,85,33,085 till today.

As many as 14,00,122 samples were tested across India on Monday.

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved the use of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus in the country on Monday. Now, India has three vaccines Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V for its inoculation programme against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the four-day-long 'Tika Utsav', a mass Covid-19 vaccine programme, started in the country on Sunday (Jyotirao Phule's birth anniversary) to April 14 (B R Ambedkar's birth anniversary), following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for the same.

From April 2, the government started vaccinating all people above 45 years. India started its vaccination drive on January 16 with priority given to all healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase. The second phase started on March 1 where doses were administered to people above the age of 60 and those between 45 and 59 years with specific comorbidities.

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