New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI): India has reported a significant spike in the cases of coronavirus infection as it reported 17,336 new cases of covid-19 in the last 24 hours as compared to the 13,313 total cases recorded on Thursday, the Union Health Ministry informed.

With the latest surge in infection, India's active caseload stood at 88,284 at the rate of 0.20 per cent, which was 83,990 at the rate of 01.19 per cent a day before.

Apart from this, according to the Ministry, the country also witnessed as many as 13,029 recoveries from the disease in the last 24 hours, thus taking the toll of total recoveries to 4,27,49,056 at the rate of 98.59 per cent.

The country's daily positivity rate stands at 4.32 per cent, whereas its weekly positivity rate is reported as 3.07 per cent.

As per the Health Ministry, a total of 85.98 crore tests have been conducted in the country so far, of which 4,01,649 were conducted in the last 24 hours alone.

The Ministry also reported that as many as 196.77 crores of covid-19 vaccine have been administrated to the states and Union Territories in India, under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive of the Union Government.

Amid the recent surge reported in COVID-19 cases across the country, the Health Ministry of India on June 9 urged States and Union Territories not to lower their guards and strictly maintain the COVID appropriate behaviour. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also wrote a letter to States/UTs and directed them to ramp up RT-PCR testing, surveillance, clinical management, vaccination, COVID-19 protocols, and take timely pre-emptive actions. Bhushan also advised the government to follow a 'five-fold Strategy'.

In view of an upsurge in COVID-19 cases in India, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday reviewed the COVID-19 and vaccination situation in the country.

In a high-level meeting, Mandaviya advised strictly to monitor the COVID-19 situation in the country focusing on vaccination of the elderly population, school-going children and surveillance and genome sequencing.

India has been witnessing a high number of COVID-19 cases over the last couple of weeks.The Union Minister stressed the need to focus on districts reporting high case positivity and undertake adequate testing (with a higher proportion of RTPCR) and effective COVID-19 surveillance to assess and control the spread of infection in a timely manner.

Mandaviya directed the officials to continue to focus on surveillance and on whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to scan for any possible mutation.

He also directed monitoring of hospitalizations due to COVID-19, and SARI/ILI cases.

He also directed health authorities concerned to increase the pace of vaccination including booster doses in districts reporting high cases. "As there are adequate vaccine doses available, let there be no vaccine wastage while focusing on accelerating vaccination among the eligible and vulnerable groups," he directed. (ANI)