India Drops Below 30,000 Daily COVID Cases For The First Time Since Mid-July

In some good news in the country's fight against COVID-19, the number of new coronavirus infections reported in a day dropped below 30,000.

The last time India reported less than 30,000 COVID-19 cases was on July 15, when the country registered 29,429 cases.

AP

With this, the total number of COVID-19 cases in India has risen to 88.74 lakh.

As of Tuesday morning, the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 82,90,370.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 88,74,290 with 29,163 infections being reported in a day while the death toll climbed to 1,30,519? with 449 new fatalities.

BCCL

The number of active cases remained below 5 lakh for the seventh consecutive day. There are 4,53,401 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country as of date which comprises 5.11 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

Recoveries cross 82 lakh

The total recoveries have surged to 82,90,370 pushing the national recovery rate to 93.42 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.47 per cent.

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 and crossed 80 lakh on October 29.

AP

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 12,65,42,907 samples have been tested up to November 16 with 8,44,382 samples being tested on Monday.

While the drop in the number of new infections is good news, it is worth noting that the number of tests conducted across the country has come down due to the weekend and Diwali.

Delhi cases down but less tests too

In Delhi, which is one of the worst affected, the number of new cases in the past 24 hours was 3797, and that is largely due to a significant drop in the number of tests conducted.

In the past 24 hours, Delhi conducted less than 30,000 tests, which is almost half the number from a week ago.

BCCL

Meanwhile, on the vaccine front, there is some good news as Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has started phase 3 trials of the COVID vaccine.

According to reports, the company plans to enrol a total of 26,000 participants for the first phase 3 efficacy study for its COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by ICMR and it will be the largest efficacy trial ever conducted in India.

Trial volunteers will receive two intramuscular injections approximately 28 days apart. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive COVAXIN or placebo. The trial is double-blinded, such that the investigators, the participants, and the company will not be aware of who is assigned to which group.