India on Saturday recorded 50,407 new coronavirus cases, pushing the infection tally in the country to 4,25,86,544 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The number of new cases was 13.2% fewer than Friday’s count 58,077 Covid-19 cases.

The toll climbed to 5,07,981 after 804 fresh deaths were recorded. Saturday’s toll includes 251 backlog deaths that Kerala added to its fatality count a day ago.

The daily positivity rate dropped marginally to 3.48% from 3.89% on Friday, government data showed. The active caseload in the country stood at 6,10,443 and as many as 4,14,68,120 patients have recovered.

Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

India has so far administered 1,72,29,47,688 vaccine doses to beneficiaries. Of this, 46,82,662 shots were administered on Friday.

Meanwhile, Quad countries – India, Australia, Japan and the United States – said on Friday that the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines which are part of the grouping’s pledge to donate shots across the world will roll out in the first half of this year, reported Reuters. The vaccines are manufactured by India’s Biological E.

China said it will not be renewing passports for non-essential travel while the international Covid-19 pandemic situation remained severe, reported Reuters. The country said that cross border travel poses “great security risks”.

Globally, the coronavirus has infected 40.85 crore people and caused 58.02 lakh deaths, data on the Johns Hopkins University showed.