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On Wednesday, India has registered 15,823 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the nationwide tally to 3,40,01,743. The death toll has climbed to 4,51,189 with 226 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated by the Union ministry of health and family welfare. 

The national Covid-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.06%, while the active cases have declined to 2,07,653 comprising 0.61% of the total infections, according to the Union Health Ministry's data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 19 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 108 consecutive days now.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, "58,63,63,442 samples tested for Covid-19 up to October 12. Of these, 13,25,399 samples were tested yesterday."  

India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20 lakh-mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. 

On Tuesday, an expert panel has recommended Covaxin-Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 vaccine to be used for vaccinating children between the ages of 2 to 18.

"Bharat Biotech has submitted data from clinical trials in the two - 18 age group for Covaxin to CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation). The data has been thoroughly reviewed by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC)... provided positive recommendations," the Hyderabad-based company said.

"This represents one of the first approvals worldwide for COVID-19 vaccines for the two - 18 age group... We now await further regulatory approvals prior to product launch and market availability of Covaxin for Children," the company said.