India’s COVID-19 tally on Thursday reached 1,17,87,534 with 53,476 new cases of
coronavirus recorded in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare’s latest data. A total of 251 deaths were registered on Wednesday.
The total number of coronavirus-induced deaths has now reached 1,60,692.

According to the health ministry’s data, there are 3,95,192 active COVID-19
cases in the country, while 1,12,31,650 have recovered.

Also read: One year of COVID-19 lockdown: How India dealt with pandemic

A total of 23,75,03,882 samples were tested for COVID-19 up to March 24, 2021. Of
these, a total of 10,65,021 samples were tested on Wednesday.

According to the health ministry, 5,31,45,709 inoculations have been done in the
country till Wednesday.

As per a report by Reuters, India temporarily banned all major exports of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots, produced by Pune-based Serum Institute of India. 

The move would also affect supply of vaccines to the international COVAX facility, which acts as a source for various middle to lower income nations to procure the shot.

India has emerged as the second worst-hit country by the virus, the
first being the United States.

Also read: Novel variant of coronavirus detected in India: Centre

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh
on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past
60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh
on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.