Poonam Singh

New Delhi: With 26,382 new coronavirus 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.

With over 33,813 patients taking the total number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 94,56,449, pushing the national recovery rate to 95.21 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent.

The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 4 lakh for the 10th consecutive day.

There are 3,32,002 active coronavirus infections in the country which constitute 3.34 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.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 15,66,46,280 samples have been tested up to December 15, of which 10,85,625 were conducted on Tuesday.

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.

(With Agency Inputs)

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