With 30,254 new cases, India’s COVID tally reaches 98.5L

With 30,254 new COVID cases and 391 deaths in the past 24 hours, India's overall tally stood at 98,57,029 on Sunday, while the death toll touched 1,43,019, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

A total of 33,136 recovered in the last 24 hours taking the cured tally to 93,57,464. Currently, there are 3,56,546 active cases. The recovery rate stands at 94.93 per cent, and the fatality rate is 1.45 as per cent.

A total of 15,37,11,833 samples have been tested for Covid-19 till now. Of these, 10,14,434 samples were tested on Friday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state with 18,76,699 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 unlabeled vaccines-Recombinant Protein Antigen based vaccine by Biological E Limited-and Inactivated rabies vector platform by Bharat Biotech.