India reports 1,223 Covid-19 cases in last 24 hrs, active cases at 16,498

India reported 1,223 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

The active caseload in the country stood at 16,498, the Ministry said.

According to the ministry, 2,720 recoveries from the disease were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries in the country up to 4,44,31,137. The recovery rate presently stands at 98.78 per cent.

The daily positivity rate is 0.86 per cent and the weekly positivity rate stands at 1.30 per cent, the ministry said.

As many as 1,636 doses of Covid vaccines were administered during this period. A total of 220.66 crore vaccines have been administered in the country so far.

A total of 92.84 crore tests have been conducted so far and 1,42,695 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, the ministry added.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently announced that the COVID-19 pandemic is over as a global health emergency.

However, the viral load and emergence of any new variant still need to be monitored, said Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS).

Speaking to ANI, Dr Mishra said, "Corona is already in the endemic stage. The level of infection we saw recently from Bengaluru data was more significant than the third wave and would have had a big problem. However, it did not happen because of vaccination, or hybrid immunity. Clinically, the virus is more infectious, but less harmful as it affects the body like the common cold.