India's COVID-19 Tally Rises To 97.96 Lakh With 29K New Infections

New Delhi: India registered less than 30,000 fresh COVID-19 infections on Friday, the second time this month, which pushed its caseload to 97.96 lakh, while the total recoveries surged to 92.90 lakh, according to the Union health ministry data.

With 29,398 new coronavirus infections and 414 deaths in the past 24 hours, India's overall tally stood at 97,96,770, while the death toll touched 1,42,186,the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 92,90,834, pushing the national recovery rate to 94.84 per cent. The COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent.

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

There are 3,63,749 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprise 3.71 per cent 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, 80 lakh on October 29, and 90 lakh on November 20.

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.

(With Agency Inputs)