WITH 26K NEW CASES, INDIA’S COVID COUNT NEARS A CRORE MARK

NEW DELHI: With 26,382 new Covid-19 infections and 387 deaths in the past 24 hours, India’s overall tally stood at 99,32,547 on Wednesday, while the death toll reached 1,44,096, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

Till now, 94,56,449 people have recovered, and over 33,813 recovered in the last 24 hours. Currently, there are 3,32,002 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 95.21 per cent, and the fatality rate is 1.45 as per cent.

A total of 15,66,46,280 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now. Of these, 10,85,625 samples were tested on Tuesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state with 18,86,807 cases till date. Over 72 per cent of the daily new cases were reported by 10 states and union territory—Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana.

As many as eight Covid-19 vaccine candidates are under different stages of clinical trials which could be ready for authorisation in near future, including three indigenous vaccines.

It includes Astrazeneca and Oxford university developed and Serum Institute of India manufactured Covishield, Covaxin by Bharat Biotech Limited, ZyCoV-D by Zydus Cadila, Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik-V, NVX-CoV2373 by SII, HGCO19 by Geneva, and two unlabelled vaccines-Recombinant Protein Antigen based vaccine by Biological E Limited-and Inactivated rabies vector platform by Bharat Biotech.