India on Friday recorded 35,342 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours as the country’s tally rose to 3,12,93,062 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The number was 14.59% fewer than 41,383 infections recorded on Thursday.

The toll rose to 4,19,470 with 483 more deaths in a span of 24 hours. The number of active cases declined by 3,881 to 4,05,513. Active cases had gone up in the last two days. A total of 3,04,68,079 patients have recovered from the disease so far.

(Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Thursday told the Parliament that 3,570 Indian citizens living abroad died of Covid-19, PTI reported. The highest toll among Indians in foreign countries was reported in Saudi Arabia where 1,154 patients died. As many as 894 deaths of Indians were recorded in the United Arab Emirates.

Amid shortages of Covid-19 vaccines, the Delhi government on Thursday said that Covishield jabs will be used only to administer second doses of the vaccine till July 31, according to PTI. The government said that it was left with less than a day’s stock of vaccines on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, China has said that the country will not participate in the second phase of an investigation by the World Health Organization into the origins of the pandemic. The Chinese authorities announced the decision after the world health body in its study included the possibility of the virus leaking from a laboratory in Wuhan.

Globally, the coronavirus disease has infected more than 19.25 crore people and killed over 41.35 lakh in the world since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.