India Coronavirus Dispatch: Younger workers worst hit by pandemic

Indigenous home-based rapid Covid test launched commercially, Centre bets on new Covid vaccine platform, and more-news relevant to India's fight against the pandemic

Over 132,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 132,364 fresh coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the cumulative caseload to 28.5 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 2,713 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 340,702. The active caseload is at 1.6 million, while the total recoveries have surged to 26.5 million. As many as 224 million shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 2.8 million were given on Thursday. Read more

India’s younger workers worst hit by pandemic: EPFO data

Payroll data from the Employees’