Coronavirus India Updates: Total Tally Nears 55 Lakh With More Than 86,000 Deaths

India continues to add fresh Covid-19 cases at a record pace, raising concerns that the second-most populous nation will soon surpass the U.S. to become the world’s worst infected.

The country added more than 92,000 new infections in a matter of 24 hours, taking the total tally above 54 lakh, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on Sept. 20. This includes over 43 lakh patients who have recovered and more than 86,000 deaths.

Key Figures

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases: 54,00,619
• Active cases: 10,10,824
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 43,03,043
• Deaths: 86,752
• Number of fresh cases in last 24 hours: 92,605
• One-day recoveries: 94,612
• One-day deaths: 1,133

India is hoping that if all goes well, a Covid-19 vaccine will be available by March 2021, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey informed Lok Sabha on Friday.

The minister said no advance purchase agreement with any vaccine manufacturers have been entered into.

According to Choubey, the phase-I of clinical trials have revealed excellent safety of the two candidate vaccines indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and Cadila Healthcare Ltd. and now their immunogenicity testing is in progress.

Global Update

Covid-19 cases in the U.S. steadied as deaths approached 200,000. U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the country is at a “tipping point” and more measures will be taken unless people comply with rules to contain the resurgent coronavirus.

Hong Kong halted Air India flights until Oct. 3 after six passengers on a plane from New Delhi tested positive. Myanmar tightened restrictions after a record number of new cases.

Globally, cases top 30.8 million, deaths exceed 958,000.