Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 10,989 new COVID-19 cases, taking the state's caseload to 58,63,880. It also recorded 261 fatalities, pushing the death toll to 1,01,833, health officials said.

The daily cases in the state have dipped to around 10,000 in the last two days.

Maharashtra had reported 9,927 cases on March 9 this year after which the numbers had increased.

As many as 16,379 patients were discharged on Wednesday, taking the number of recovered persons to 55,97,304.

The state's recovery rate is 95.45 percent and the case fatality rate is 1.74 percent, the health department said. There are 1,61,864 active cases in the state now.

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 registers 10,989 COVID-19 cases, 261 deaths

As many as 16,379 patients were discharged on Wednesday, taking the number of recovered persons to 55,97,304.

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