India logged 343,144 new coronavirus cases, taking its total caseload past the 24-million mark on Friday, even as the government provided assurances and detailed measures to make up for a shortage of vaccines.
Covid-19 claimed 4,000 more victims in the past 24 hours, bringing the death tally to 262,317, according to a federal Health Ministry bulletin.
The South Asian country has reported more than 300,000 cases a day for the past three weeks, overwhelming its health systems.
With infections surging in rural areas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interaction with farmers, urged them to take adequate precautions to check the spread of the pandemic.
More than 2 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines are likely to be available from August to December, top government advisor VK Paul said late on Thursday, raising hopes that India may overcome setbacks from its inoculation strategy.
Separately, vaccine makers have been invited to produce the domestically developed Covaxin to address shortages.
The gap between doses for its main vaccine, Covishield, would grow from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks, senior government advisor NK Arora told NDTV. He stressed this was a decision based on scientific inputs, not because of vaccine shortages.
Despite being the global hub of vaccine production, India has been able to fully vaccinate less than 3 per cent of its population so far, according to reports.
India, battling a second deadly wave of the pandemic, has become the global epicentre of the coronavirus, accounting for a substantial number of global infections and deaths since April.
Source: DPA
