India on Wednesday recorded 35,178 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 3,22,85,857 since the pandemic broke out in January last year.

The country’s toll rose to 4,32,519 with 440 more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, while the number of active cases declined by 2,431 to 3,67,415.

As many as 3,14,85,923 patients have recovered from the disease so far.

The number of new Covid-19 cases were considerably higher than Tuesday’s count of 25,166. However, the daily cases have shown a trend of dipping on Tuesdays due to fewer number of tests conducted over weekends. The test results typically take one or two days to arrive.

Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Other updates

  • Kerala Health Minister Veena George has directed state health officials to set up paediatric wards and Intensive Care Units in 48 hospitals in view of a potential third wave, ANI reported. Kerala has been logging the highest number of daily cases among all states.
  • Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has also directed state officials to make arrangements for the testing of all symptomatic students attending schools, News18 reported.
  • Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has announced a Rs 1,300 crore financial package to tackle the pandemic situation in the northeastern states, PTI reported.

Global updates

  • The World Health Organization has issued an alert after detecting fake vials of the Covishield vaccine in India and Uganda, Mint reported. Serum Institute of India has confirmed that some vaccine vials reported at the patient-level were fake, according to the WHO.
  • Patients with long Covid-19 syndrome continue to have higher measures of blood clotting, PTI reported citing a study from the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Ireland. The condition may lead to persistent symptoms such as reduced physical fitness and fatigue, according to the study.
  • Covid-19 has infected more than 20.85 crore people and led to over 43.81 lakh deaths in the world since the beginning of the pandemic in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.