India records 41,810 fresh coronavirus cases, 496 deaths in 24 hours

India has recorded 41,810 fresh Covid-19 infections and 496 fatalities in the past 24 hours, according to the official data on Sunday.

Now, the total cases in the country stands at 93,92,920.

With 496 deaths in a day, the toll has mounted to 1,36,696. The country has 4,53,956 active cases of coronavirus, the Union health ministry said on Sunday.

In the past 24 hours, 42,298 patients were discharged across the country, taking the total recovered patients to 88,02,267.

The total number of samples tested up to Saturday stood at 13,95,03,803, including 12,83,449 samples tested yesterday itself, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Sunday.

The ICMR has also approved a “simple and fast method for Covid-19 testing, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said on Saturday. This method can not only increase the number of RT-PCR tests, but can also bring down costs, the CSIR said.

Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla said that the Pune-based pharma company is in the process of applying for emergency use authorisation of ‘Covishield’ in the next two weeks.

‘Covishield’ is the experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca in affiliation with the SII.