India records 259,170 COVID-19 cases, 1,761 deaths in last 24 hours

In the last 24 hours, India recorded 259,170 cases of COVID-19, taking the tally of coronavirus infection to 15,321,089. A total of 1,761 people died across the nation from the COVID-19 disease on Monday, taking the death toll to 180,530. 

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According to the health ministry, 154,761 people recovered from the infection on Monday. Now, the tally of recovered COVID-19 cases in India stands at 13,108,582. There are currently 2,031,977 active cases of coronavirus in the country. 

On Monday, 1,519,486 samples for COVID-19 were tested in India, the Indian Council for Medical Research said. As of April 19, a total of 69,414,035 samples for COVID-19 have been tested in India. 

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Since the vaccination drive against COVID-19 was kicked off in India on January 16, people have received at least one of the two vaccine doses.

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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.