COVID-19 cases decline in India, death toll still high

India on Saturday reported 173,790 new COVID-19 cases, its lowest in 45 days and a big contrast to its grim record 414,000 infections in a single day.

However, data released by the Health Ministry showed that the daily death toll remains high with 3,617 fatalities.

India is looking to pick up its sluggish vaccination drive with only 3 per cent of the population fully vaccinated so far.

On Friday, senior minister, Prakash Javadekar reiterated the government’s forecast that the entire country would be inoculated by the end of the year.

Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar who is visiting the United States (U.S.) said the pandemic and vaccines are a key part of discussions with top officials of the Biden administration.

National capital New Delhi plans to start lifting Coronavirus curbs and gradually unlocking from Monday.

Delhi has been under a lockdown since April 19.

With overall total of 27.7 million cases, India is second only to the U.S. in terms of the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic.

Globally, the Coronavirus has infected 169.5 million people and killed more than 3.5 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.