Coronavirus India Updates: Active Cases Continue To Drop, Daily Fatalities Lowest In 5 Months

Active Covid-19 cases in India dropped below 4 lakh at a time the country prepares itself for an inoculation drive as soon as a vaccine is ready.

India reported nearly 33,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to more than 96.7 lakh in the world’s second-worst infected nation, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m on Dec. 7. That includes over 91 lakh recoveries and more than 1.4 lakh deaths.

Authorities reported over 39,000 recoveries in a day — the tenth straight day when new cases trailed recoveries. That brought active cases below 4 lakh for the first time since July 20.

Key Figures

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases: 96,77,203
• Active cases: 3,96,729
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 91,39,901
• Deaths: 1,40,573
• Number of fresh cases in 24 hours: 32,981
• One-day recoveries: 39,109
• One-day deaths: 391

India’s daily fatalities dropped below 400 for the first time in five months.

Two leading coronavirus vaccine developers — Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc — have applied for emergency use authorisation in India, according to the Press Trust of India, raising the likelihood that mass inoculation efforts could begin within weeks in the country of 1.3 billion people.

Pfizer India has applied to India’s drug regulator for permission to import its experimental mRNA vaccine for sale and distribution without the requirement for local clinical trials, PTI reported citing an official who didn't wish to be named.

Meanwhile, Serum Institute of India Ltd., AstraZeneca’s India vaccine partner, has applied for emergency use authorisation using data from phase-III trials that were conducted locally, as well as in Brazil and the U.K., said PTI citing unnamed officials.

Global Virus Update

Global cases of coronavirus surpassed 67 million with more than 1.54 million dead from the infection as of Tuesday morning.

The World Health Organization said it favours information campaigns and allowing people to decide whether to take Covid-19 vaccinations instead of making them mandatory.

Record infections swept across the U.S. states and hospitalisations rose by almost 2,000 a day. The U.S. is averaging about as many deaths per day from Covid-19 as it was in April, when the pandemic ambushed the New York area.

Uruguay denied sending beef tainted with Covid-19 to China as the shipment in issue was dispatched in December 2019, before the virus was detected domestically, and then passed through South Africa, Malaysia and the city of Tianjin en route to Wuhan.