India recorded fewer than 50,000 coronavirus infections on Tuesday for the first time since late March, a day after vaccinating a record 8 million people and continuing the downward trend following a virulent second wave.
The Asian country added 42,640 cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest number in 91 days, raising the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic to 29.9 million, according to the latest data from the Indian Ministry of Health.
The number of deaths from COVID-19 also experienced a decline, with 1,167 in the last day.
In all, 389,302 people have officially died in India from the pandemic, although experts have warned that this figure could be several times higher in reality.
This decrease in cases comes a day after India began to vaccinate its entire population over 18 years old for free, as part of a campaign that is seen by public authorities as the best defense against the coronavirus.
This country of 1.35 billion people today administered 8.2 million vaccines against COVID-19 nationwide, a record, bringing the total doses administered to about 283 million doses since January.
The Asian nation had set a goal of administering a total of 600 million doses by August, although vaccine shortages have significantly delayed this ambitious program.
India experienced a virulent second wave of the coronavirus that peaked in mid-May with more than 400,000 daily, causing an overload on its healthcare system that left dramatic images of saturated hospitals and crematoriums.
Since then, the contagion curve has declined, especially in some of the worst affected regions such as New Delhi. The Indian capital registered just 89 cases in the last 24 hours, while it came to report more than 30,000 during the peak of the second wave.
The delta variant of the coronavirus originally identified in India, and which according to the World Health Organization (WHO) already circulates in 92 countries, is seen as one of the factors that contributed to the spectacular increase in cases in India, due to its high transmissibility.
