With over 29,000 new cases, India's COVID-19 tally rises to 97.96 lakh

With 29,398 new coronavirus infections and 414 deaths in the past 24 hours, India's overall tally stood at 97,96,770 on Friday, while the death toll touched 1,42,186, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. Until now, 92,90,834 have recovered, and 37,528 in the last 24 hours. Currently, there are 3,63,749 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 94.84 per cent, and the fatality rate is 1.45 as per cent. On Thursday, 9,22,959 tests were conducted, taking the tally of total tests conducted to 15,07,59,726.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state with 18,64,348 cases to date. Over 72 per cent of the daily new cases were reported by 10 states and UT -- Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka. 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 unlabeled vaccines-Recombinant Protein Antigen based vaccine by Biological E Limited-and Inactivated rabies vector platform by Bharat Biotech.