India logs 1,150 fresh Covid-19 cases in 24 hours
New Delhi, April 9: India recorded 1,150 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours with a case positivity rate of 0.25 percent, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.
The active caseload in the country stands at 11,365 which is 0.03 percent of the total number of Covid-19 cases. As many as 1,194 Covid patients recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours. The total number of recoveries since the beginning of the pandemic now stands at 4,25,01,196. The recovery rate has been recorded at 98.76 per cent.
According to the data updated by the Ministry, 83 patients succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 5,21,656.
As many as 4,66,362 Covid-19 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. With this, 79.34 crore tests have been conducted in India so far, with a weekly positivity rate of 0.23 percent.
Furthermore, 14,79,544 Covid vaccine doses were administered during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of vaccines jabbed under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive to 1,85,55,07,496.
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Meanwhile, a person in Gujarat has been infected with Coronavirus variant XE, which is more infectious but not more severe than the Omicron strain. According to reports, one case of XM variant has also been detected in the state.
Earlier this week, a case of the XE variant was reported in Mumbai from a sample isolated in February, however, officials at the Indian Sarscov2 Genome Consortium (INSACOG) (a network of labs that tracks sequences) and the Union Health Ministry, are yet to confirm if it is an XE variant.
The new strain XE was detected in the UK at the start of the new year.
"XE is a "recombinant" which is a mutation of BA'1 and BA.2 Omicron strains. Recombinant mutations emerge when a patient is infected by multiple variants of Covid. The variants mix up their genetic material during replication and form a new mutation," UK experts said in a paper published in British Medical Journal.
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-PTC News 
