Coronavirus India Live Updates: India reports 2.08 lakh new cases, 4,157 deaths in last 24 hours

Coronavirus (Covid-19) India Lockdown and Cases News Live Updates: Indian pharmaceutical company Wockhardt has told the government it can produce as many as two billion doses a year of most Covid-19 vaccines, starting with a capacity of 500 million doses by February 2022.

Covid-19 India Live Updates: India reported 2,08,921 new Covid-19 cases and 4,157 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this the country’s overall caseload has risen to 2,71,57,795, while the death toll is presently at 3,11,388. According to latest data released by the Union Health Ministry, the country’s active caseload has declined to 24.95 lakh. In the last 24 hours, 2,95,955 patients recovered from the deadly disease. The recovery rate rose to 89.66 per cent.

As India combats an acute shortage of coronavirus vaccines, US manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer are expected to bring some relief. Moderna is set to launch its single dose vaccine in India by next year and is in talks with Indian manufacturers, including Cipla among others. Meanwhile, another US giant Pfizer is ready to offer 5 crore shots in 2021 itself but is calling for significant regulatory relaxations, sources told PTI.

Meanwhile, Indian pharmaceutical company Wockhardt has told the government it can produce as many as two billion doses a year of most Covid-19 vaccines, starting with a capacity of 500 million doses by February 2022. In a formal submission to the Centre earlier this month, Mumbai-based Wockhardt has sought help to identify potential partners in the country whose vaccines it could produce, The Indian Express has learnt.

On Tuesday, during his first face-to-face interaction with UN Secretary-General António Guterres since India entered the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member in January this year, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar  said he has discussed the Covid challenge with an emphasis on finding an urgent and effective global solution to ramp up the vaccine supply chain for greater production and fairer distribution.

Jaishankar was accompanied by India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti and Deputy Permanent Representative Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu as he arrived at the UN Headquarters to meet the UN chief. The meeting lasted almost an hour.

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Active caseload declines to 24.95 lakh

As India combats an acute shortage of coronavirus vaccines, state governments have been urged to keep vaccine wastage below 1 per cent. This comes as several states — including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh — have been reporting a significant increase in discarded vaccine doses. 

A person who died of COVID-19 being taken for cremation, amid a spike in coronavirus cases countrywide, at Nigam Bodh Crematorium in New Delhi, Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (Express Photo By Amit Mehra)

Bharat Biotech on Tuesday said it expects approval for Covaxin from the World Health Organisation for Emergency Use Listing during July-September. The company said regulatory approvals for Covaxin are in process in more than 60 countries including the USA, Brazil and Hungary among others.

Meanwhile on Monday, the number of fresh cases reported 1,568 in Delhi, 1,037 in Mumbai, 6,243 in Bengaluru, 2,979 in Kolkata and 4,041 in Chennai.

Covid patients will not be allowed to remain in home isolation in 18 Maharashtra districts and must go to quarantine centres. Maharashtra Health Minister said, “We have decided to stop home isolation for Covid patients in 18 districts where the positivity rate is high. The patients from these districts will have to go to a quarantine centre and won’t be allowed to stay in home isolation.”

India recorded over 1.96 lakh new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending 8 am Tuesday, taking the country’s total infections to over 2.69 crore . The daily spike in new cases have fallen below 2 lakh after a month. Out of these, over 25 lakh are active cases while over 2.40 crore people have recovered after testing positive. With 3,511 news deaths, the toll is now at 3,07,231. This is the the lowest spike since May 3. The drop is mainly because of Maharashtra reporting far lesser number of deaths.

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