Maharashtra on Saturday reported 55,411 fresh coronavirus positive cases and 309 fatalities, taking the tally to 33,43,951 and the toll to 57,638, the state health department said.

Maharashtra is now left with 5,36,682 active cases.

A total of 53,005 people were discharged during the day, taking the count of recoveries in Maharashtra so far to 27,48,153, it said in a release.

The case recovery rate is 82.18 per cent while the fatality rate is 1.72 per cent.

With 2,19,977 new tests, the total number of samples tested so far in Maharashtra has gone up to 2,18,51,235, the department said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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Maharashtra records 55,411 fresh COVID-19 cases, 309 deaths

With 2,19,977 new tests, the total number of samples tested so far in Maharashtra has gone up to 2,18,51,235, the department said.

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