India reports 24,000 new COVID-19 cases, 333 deaths

With 24,367 new coronavirus infections and 333 deaths in the past 24 hours, India's overall tally stood at 10,055,560 on Monday, while the death toll touched 1,45,810, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. A total of 96,06,111 people have recovered till now, while 25,709 recovered in the last 24 hours. Currently, there are 3,03,639 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 95.53 per cent while the fatality rate is 1.45 as per cent.

A total of 16,20,98,329 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now. Of these, 9,00,134 samples were tested on Sunday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said. Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state with 18,96,518 cases till date.

Over 70 per cent of the daily new cases are being reported by 10 states and union territory -- Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Over 75 per cent of the deaths are being reported from Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana.

There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel as India has eight Covid-19 vaccine candidates, including three indigenous vaccines, under different stages of clinical trials which could be ready for authorisation in near future. It includes AstraZeneca and Oxford university developed and Serum Institute of India manufactured Covishield, Covaxin by Bharat Biotech Limited, ZyCoV-D by Zydus Cadila and Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik-V.

The list also contains 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.