India on Thursday recorded 97,894 new cases of the coronavirus disease in the last 24 hours, which pushed the country’s tally to 51,18,253.
According to Union health ministry update on Thursday morning, the number of active cases crossed the million mark and currently stand at 10,09,976 whereas 40,25,079 patients have been discharged from hospitals.
There were 1,132 new fatalities due to the disease in the same period, taking the death toll to 83,198.
Despite the high number of daily cases, the government has been highlighting the recoveries being registered daily in the country. On Wednesday, a record 82,961 new Covid-19 recoveries were reported pushing the overall figures close to 39.5 lakh.
The recovery rate has further improved to 78.53 per cent, the health ministry said.
It further said that nearly 59 per cent of the new recoveries came from five states – 23.41 per cent from Maharashtra (19,423 recoveries); and a cumulative 35.5 per cent from Andhra Pradesh (9,628 recoveries), Karnataka (7,406), Uttar Pradesh (6,680) and Tamil Nadu (5,735).
Twenty-seven states and union territories are reporting recovery rates of more than 70 per cent, the ministry highlighted.
Meanwhile, Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) on Wednesday received the approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to resume clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by United Kingdom’s Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
The trials in India were paused last week after a trial subject in the United Kingdom developed an unexplained severe adverse reaction.
In a related development, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday that the central government has approved the use of Remdesivir and Fabiparivir as medicines to treat the coronavirus disease.
The top court was hearing a plea seeking registration of an FIR by the CBI against ten Indian pharmaceutical firms for manufacturing and selling these two medicines for treating COVID-19 patients allegedly without valid licences.
Remdesivir and Favipiravir are antiviral drugs and their efficacy in treating COVID-19 patients have been a matter of debate among medical experts.