India marches ahead with another achievement in its fight against COVID-19, so far administered 173 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses. Indicating a further dip in COVID-19 infection after an exponential growth considered to be driven by the Omicron variant, India reported 34,113 new cases in the last 24 hours compared to 44,877 new cases reported a day earlier.
With a continuous dip in infection, India’s active caseload currently stands at 4,78,882 and daily positivity rate at 3.19%. The recovery rate in the country currently stands at 97.68%. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfares of the total 4,16,77,641 recoveries reported in the country, 91,930 patients recovered in the last 24 hours.
Further strengthening the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination drive, over 70% of our youngsters between the 15-18 age group have received their 1st dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. According to Health Ministry data, 6,80,77,353 youngsters received COVID-19 vaccine doses.
On the other hand following a sign of further retreat in COVID-19 cases, schools (nursery to eight standards) reopened in National Capital from today, while classes from 9th to 12th reopened earlier on February 7th. Delhi, earlier on Sunday reported 804 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Apart from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Shillong and Chandigarh have decided to reopen schools for all classes from today.
7 days home quarantine rule stands withdrawn:
Giving major relaxation to international travellers amidst a dip in COVID-19 cases, the Ministry of Health issued revised guidelines for International arrivals which came into effect starting today i.e. February 14, 2022. Under the revised rules, mandatory seven days home quarantine rule along with undertaking RT-PCR test on the 8th day & uploading the same on Air Suvidha portal stand withdrawn.
On the basis of reciprocity, under the revised guidelines, travellers from 82 countries (including Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Iran among others) that provide quarantine-free entry to Indians will be considered for allowing entry based on vaccination certificate & shall upload their fully vaccinate certificate on the Air Suvidha portal. According to the new travel guidelines, random sampling of 2% of International Travellers from all countries will be done upon the arrival. Travellers can give samples & are allowed to leave the airport.
Also, under the revised rules, the demarcation of countries ‘at-risk’ & other countries was removed. Accordingly need for giving samples on a port of arrival & waiting till the result is obtained from countries ‘at-risk’ is dispensed with.
