India registers 343,144 new Covid-19 cases, 4000 deaths 

During the same period, 4000 people lost their lives due to the deadly virus that has been ravaging the country during the second wave.

The total death toll due to the disease now stands at 262317.

There are 3704893 active cases in the country at present.

So far, 20079599 people have been discharged after treatment from the disease.

Indian Council of Medical Research tested 18,75,515 samples for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. It has so far tested 31,13,24,100 samples.

Since the launch of the first phase of vaccination, 17,92,98,584 people have been inoculated against the virus with 20,27,162 doses being given since Thursday, the Ministry said.

Meanwhile, nearly 18 crore people have been vaccinated so far, according to the Health Ministry. Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh account for 66.73 per cent of the cumulative doses, the Ministry said.

Amidst this, the government has increased the gap between the first and second doses of the Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks - from the existing 6-8 weeks. This is for the second time in three months that Covishield dosage intervals have been widened.

States like Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Karnataka have called for global tenders for procuring COVID-19 vaccines after witnessing a shortage of vaccines.

The central government and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech have expressed willingness to invite other companies which want to produce Covaxin to help scale up its production, according to a top government advisor. "Companies that want to manufacture Covaxin, should do it together. The Centre will assist so that capacity is increased," NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul said.

As per World Health Organisation (WHO), globally, there have been 160,074,267 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 3,325,260 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 11 May 2021, a total of 1,264,164,553 vaccine doses have been administered.

The United States has recovered the highest number of infections (3,24,61,049), followed by India, Brazil (1,52,82,705) and France (5,72,826).

Relaxation in procurement rules for containment of COVID-19 pandemic

The Government of India has exempted the public procurement of supplies required for containment of COVID-19 global pandemic from the applicability of Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017. The order issued by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry says that the aforesaid exemption shall be applicable till 30.09.2021.