India reports 314,835 new COVID-19 cases, 2,104 deaths in last 24 hours

India recorded 314,835 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the Union Health Ministry’s data released on Thursday showed. A total of 2,104 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours across the nation, taking the death toll from coronavirus in India to 184,657. India’s tally of COVID-19 cases has now reached 15,930,965. 

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In the last 24 hours, 178,841 people recovered from the COVID-19 disease. The tally of recovered COVID-19 cases has now reached 13,454,880. There are currently 2,291,428 active cases of coronavirus in India. 

A total of 272,705,103 samples have been tested up till April 21, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said. This includes 1,651,711 samples tested on Wednesday. 

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Since the vaccination drive against COVID-19 was kicked off in India on January 16, over 132.2 million people have received at least one of the two doses of vaccine. The Centre on Monday opened up vaccination for all above 18 years.

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Currently, two vaccines — Covaxin and Covishield — are being administered in India. The former is the indigenous jab developed at Hyderabad’s Bharat biotech. Covishield is AstraZeneca/Oxford’s jab that is being manufactured at the Pune-based Serum Institute. A third vaccine, Russia’s Sputnik V, has also been approved by India’s drug regulator for emergency use.

The second wave of COVID-19 in India has been very aggressive and fast-spreading. The country has overtaken Brazil and the US in the number of daily cases. Several states have imposed curfews and strict restrictions amid shortages of hospital beds, oxygen and medicines.