India’s tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) rose to 10,286,709 on the first day of the new year, as the country recorded 20,035 new infections in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry’s dashboard showed on Friday. The country’s latest spike in Covid-19 cases is in continuation with the recent trend of low new daily infections, as against more than 90,000 each day in September.
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The number of active cases continue to fall and are currently at 254,254, down 3,402 from Thursday, the ministry’s dashboard showed. Recoveries, meanwhile, continue to rise and are currently at 9,883,461, with 23,181 people, more than new patients, recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours. However, in the same duration, the virus also claimed 256 more lives, taking India’s death toll to 148,994. Recoveries, active cases and deaths contribute 96.08%, 2.47% and 1.45% respectively of the country’s total Covid-19 cases.
India’s latest numbers come a day before a nationwide dry run for vaccination is scheduled to take place on Saturday. Earlier in the week, a two-day dry run was held in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab on December 28 and 29. Also on Friday, the subject experts committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) is scheduled to meet to review the emergency use authorisation (EUA) applications submitted by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited.
While SII will manufacture in India the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, called Covishield, Bharat Biotech has developed the country’s first indigenous vaccine candidate, Covaxin. However, its was America’s Pfizer Inc, which was the first to submit a EUA application in India though, since then, it hasn’t shown up for a presentation on earlier dates and has sought more time.`