India on Saturday recorded 1,27,952 coronavirus cases, taking the overall infection count to 4,20,80,664 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The number of cases is 14.35% fewer than Friday’s count of 1,49,394 infections.

With 1,059 deaths, the climbed to 5,01,114 on Saturday. India’s fatality count includes 370 backlog deaths that Kerala added to its toll.

The daily positivity rate declined to 7.98% from Friday’s 9.27%. Currently, there are 13,31,648 active cases in the country, and 4,02,47,902 patients have recovered from the infection.

In the past 24 hours, 47,53,081 Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered in the country, taking the total number of shots administered to 1,68,98,17,199 since the vaccination drive began on January 16, 2021

(Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

Meanwhile, the Centre told the Lok Sabha on Friday that a vaccine effectiveness of 99.3% has been seen among people who have been fully inoculated against the coronavirus disease till January 2.

The Supreme Court directed states and Union Territories to appoint nodal officers for the payment of ex gratia compensation to families of those who died of the coronavirus. A bench comprising Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna said that state governments should take all efforts to ensure that the compensation is paid within ten days of receiving the claim.

Globally, the coronavirus has infected 39.06 crore people and caused 57.24 lakh deaths, data on the Johns Hopkins University showed.