India recorded 13,596 new coronavirus cases on Monday morning, which took the total number of cases in the country to 3,40,81,315 since the pandemic began in January last year. This is the country’s lowest daily rise in cases in 230 days, the health ministry said.

India’s toll rose to 4,52,290 as it recorded 166 more deaths in the last 24 hours.

The number of active cases in India was 1,89,694 on Monday morning, while the tally of recoveries stood at 3,34,39,331.

Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

In India, 97,79,47,783 vaccine doses have been administered since the beginning of the inoculation drive in January. Of these, 12,05,162 doses were administered on Sunday.

Presently, only Indians aged 18 and above are eligible for vaccination against Covid-19.

An expert committee on Covid-19 vaccines has recommended Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for use among children in age group of 2 years to 18 years.

VK Paul, India’s Covid-19 Task Force chief, said on Sunday that the final decision on inoculating children and teenagers will be based on “overall scientific rationale and the supply situation of the child-licenced vaccines”.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization announced that its experts will meet on October 26 to decide on emergency-use listing of Covaxin.

“WHO has been working closely with Bharat Biotech to complete the dossier,” the global health agency’s Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan tweeted. “Our goal is to have a broad portfolio of vaccines approved for emergency use and to expand access to populations everywhere.”

The coronavirus has infected over 24.06 crore people globally and caused nearly 49 lakh deaths since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.