India registers 26,624 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours

India recorded 26,624 new coronavirus cases, 29,690 recoveries and 341 deaths on Sunday, as per the Health Ministry. The total caseload in India has reached 1,00,31,223 and had crossed the 1-crore mark on December 19.

Total recoveries have reached 95,80,402 while the total active cases in the country stand at 3,05,344. The death toll in India is at 1,45,477.

According to the Union Health Ministry, the active cases comprise 3.04 percent of the total cases while the recovery rate is at 95.51 percent. Meanwhile, the death rate is at 1.45 percent.

The Indian Council for Medical Research revealed that 11,07,681 samples were tested for coronavirus on December19. The total number of samples tested so far in India are 16,11,98,195.

Currently six coronavirus vaccines are undergoing clinical trials in India and are in different stages of development. These vaccines are — Covaxin being developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR, second one developed by Zydus Cadila, third one by Gennova, Oxford vaccine, trial of which is conducted by Serum Institute of India, Sputnik V vaccine which is being manufactured by Dr Reddy’s Lab, Hyderabad, in collaboration with Russia’s Gamaleya National Centre and the sixth one manufactured by Biological E Ltd, Hyderabad, in collaboration with MIT.

Meanwhile, three vaccines have sought emergency use authorisation (EUA) in India. The Pfizer vaccine, which is already being used for mass vaccination in the US, UK, Canada and a few other nations, has sought authorisation in India as well. Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute have also sought EUA for their vaccine candidates.