COVID-19: India sees 43,071 new infections and 955 deaths in 24 hours

The country's active COVID-19 caseload currently stands at 4,85,350, while the death tally is at 4,02,005.

File Photo (Reuters)

New Delhi: India saw a slight dip in daily COVID-19 cases and recorded 43,071 new infections in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Sunday (July 4, 2021) morning.

The country reported less than 50,000 daily new cases for the seventh continuous day and the national weekly positivity rate currently stands at 2.44 per cent, while the daily positivity rate is at 2.34 per cent.

However, the number of single-day deaths rose after 955 fresh coronavirus-related fatalities, as compared to 738 between Friday and Saturday morning.

There were also over 52,000 people who recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours. With this, the country's active COVID-19 caseload stands at 4,85,350, while the death tally is at 4,02,005 and the total number of recoveries is at 2,96,58,078.

Earlier on Saturday, amid concerns over the third wave of coronavirus hitting India, a scientist of a government panel tasked with modelling COVID-19 cases said that the possible wave can reach its peak between October and November.

Manindra Agarwal, who is working with the Sutra Model -- the mathematical projection of the trajectory of COVID-19, said that the coronavirus infection can spread faster during the third wave if 'any new virulent variant' of SARS-CoV-2 emerges. He stated that it can take place if COVID-appropriate behaviour is not followed, but may see half the daily cases recorded during the second surge.

Agarwal said that the third wave of coronavirus could see daily COVID-19 cases rise up between 1,50,000 and 2,00,000 in India. The figure, however, is less than half of what was recorded when the second wave had hit its peak in May that had led to the flooding of hospitals with patients and had claimed over thousands of lives daily.

"If a new mutant emerges, the third wave could spread rapidly, but it will be half of what the second wave was. Delta variant is infecting people who contracted a different variant earlier. So this has been taken into consideration," the scientist said.

This is to be noted that a new study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has found that individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 and have received one or both doses of vaccine exhibit relatively higher protection against Delta variant in comparison to those administered either one or two doses of Covishield. 

The study found out that the humoral and cellular immune response plays a vital role in protection against the Delta variant, which is more transmissible and virulent than other mutated strains of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, India's cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed the landmark of 35 crores on Saturday. A total of 35,12,21,306 vaccine doses have been administered through 46,04,925 sessions, of which, 63,87,849 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours.