Coronavirus pandemic continues wreaking havoc worldwide. According to worldometer.com, 176,092,290 cases of coronavirus have been reported so far. Of these, 159,674,685 people have recovered, while 3,801,813 people have died.
India has been witnessing a gradual decrease in daily coronavirus cases. According to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry, India reported 84,332 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative count of the cases to 2,93,59,155. With 4,002 deaths in the last 24 hours, the death toll has increased to 3,67,081.
The country also witnessed 1,21,311 recoveries in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries to 2,79,11,384. With this, the country's recovery rate has increased to 95.07%. On the other hand, India's mortality rate stands at 1.25%. There has been a steady decline in active cases of coronavirus in the country. According to the latest data of the Union Health Ministry, in the last 24 hours, the active cases in the country have been reduced by 40,981.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday rejected Bharat Biotech's proposal for an emergency use authorisation (EUA) of its COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin. Meanwhile, this has delayed the Indian drug maker's vaccine launch in the US. Ocugen, the partner of Bharat Biotech in the US had applied for the EUA with FDA.
In the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic, different variants of COVID-19 remain a matter of concern. According to a study, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's vaccine can effectively neutralise Beta, Gamma variant of the Coronavirus disease.
The study, led by researchers from New York University, US, showed that the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccination worked well against most variants of the earlier virus, but the vaccine neutralised the South African variant and the Brazilian variant with a 3-fold decrease in titer.