16K active COVID cases registered for 3rd day in a row

New Delhi:India has confirmed 16,488 fresh cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours pushing the tally to 11,079,979, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

The death toll from the disease has reached 1,56,938 people, with 113 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 10.76 million people have recovered in the country since the start of the outbreak.

A day earlier, the country registered 16,577 new COVID-19 cases and 120 deaths.

Ahead of the second phase of the government’s vaccination drive from March, 14,242,547 people have been inoculated against the disease so far.

The Union government called for an urgent meeting on Friday to brief states regarding phase 3 of the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive in the country.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has said that no COVID-19 vaccination sessions will be held on February 27 and February 28.

It said that on this Saturday and Sunday, the Co-Win digital platform will be transitioning from Co-Win1.0 to Co-Win 2.0.

"In view of this, COVID-19 vaccination sessions will not be scheduled during these two days," the Ministry informed.

India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States, with more than 28.48 million COVID-19 patients.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 113.39 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 2.51 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.(UNI)