India on Wednesday reported 37,724 coronavirus cases and 648 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Government data shows that the total cases in the country is now 11,92,915 and at least 7,53,050 people have recovered and the total fatalities is 28,732.
The recovery rate is 63.12 percent and positivity rate 10.99 percent. The total samples tested till Tuesday is 1.47 crore, while 3,43,243 samples were tested yesterday.
Maharashtra is the worst hit state in the country and has a mortality rate of 3.8 percent, way higher than the national average of 2.5 percent.
Meanwhile, human trials of the indigenously developed coronavirus vaccine, COVAXIN, began on Monday, AIIMS-Delhi Director Dr Randeep Guleria said, adding that it would take at least three months for researchers to arrive at the first set of data.
“It (starting trials) is heartening because it’s an indigenous vaccine; making a new vaccine is an achievement. Even if a vaccine is first developed somewhere else in the world, India will be mass producing it. We are good at it,” Mr Guleria said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra has placed orders for the procurement of life-saving experimental COVID-19 medicines, including Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, to halt black marketing of the drugs amid a steady rise of coronavirus cases.