Guwahati, Sep 17 (PTI) A total of 7,09,524 people received the COVID-19 vaccine in Assam on Friday as the state government undertook a mega inoculation drive on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi"s birthday, a bulletin said. Over 2.16 crore people have been immunised, and 44.02 lakh of them got both doses of the vaccines, it said. The special drive was conducted in 4,575 COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs), of which 4,557 were government sites and 18 private ones. The northeastern state, however, reported nine more COVID deaths during the day, raising the toll to 5,788, and the coronavirus tally mounted to 5,97,344 with 270 fresh cases, the National Health Mission bulletin said. Golaghat reported three fresh fatalities, while two were registered in Kamrup Metro, and one each in Jorhat, Karimganj, Nagaon and Sonitpur. The current death rate is 0.97 per cent, and 1,347 COVID-positive patients have died due to other ailments. The number of new COVID cases was less than the previous day"s 468 as the count of daily tests for the infection declined on Friday. The fresh cases were detected from 55,049 tests, lower than 59,020 conducted on the previous day. Assam has so far conducted over 2.28 crore sample tests for COVID-19. Kamrup Metro recorded the highest number of new cases at 90, followed by 25 from Jorhat, 16 from Darrang and 15 from Sonitpur. The state now has 3,818 active cases, and 477 people were cured of the disease during the day, taking the total number of recoveries to 5,86,391. The recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state stands at 98.17. PTI DG BDC BDC