COVID-19: India Records 24010 New Cases, 355 Fatalities In Last 24 Hours

New Delhi:17/12/20: With 24,010 fresh novel Coronavirus infections and 355 deaths in the past 24 hours, India’s COVID-19 caseload rose to 99.56 lakh, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 94.89 lakh, on Thursday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 99,56,557 and the death toll rose to 1,44,451 with 355 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 94,89,740 pushing the national recovery rate to 95.31 percent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 percent.

The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 4 lakh for the eleventh consecutive day.

There are 3,22,366 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 3.24 percent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, and surpassed 90 lakh on November 20.

According to the ICMR, 15,78,05,240 samples have been tested up to December 16 with 11,58,960 samples being tested on Wednesday.

The 355 new fatalities include 95 from Maharashtra, 46 from West Bengal, 32 from Delhi and 27 from Kerala.

A total of 1,44,451 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 48,434 from Maharashtra followed by 11,971 from Karnataka, 11,931 from Tamil Nadu, 10,147 from Delhi, 9,191 from West Bengal, 8,118 from Uttar Pradesh, 7,067 from Andhra Pradesh, and 5,135 from Punjab.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 percent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

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; the 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.