A woman is receiving a dose of COVISHIELD, a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, in Ahmedabad. (Representative image: Reuters)

India reported 37,154 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Health Ministry on Monday.

India's active caseload of COVID-19 cases is at 4,50,899. The active cases constitute 1.46 per cent of the total cases.

The country also reported 724 deaths due to COVID-19 and with that, the cumulative fatalities in the country due to viral infection reached 4,08,764.

Out of the people infected since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,00,14,713 patients have already recovered from COVID-19 and 39,649 recovered in the last 24 hours.

This constitutes an overall recovery rate of 97.22 per cent, which is showing a sustained increasing trend.

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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The weekly positivity rate also remained below 5 per cent and is currently at 2.32 per cent. Further, the daily positivity rate is at 2.59 per cent, less than 3 per cent for 21 consecutive days.

The testing capacity in the country has been substantially ramped up with 43.23 crore tests conducted so far.

India commenced its COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16 this year. Till date, 37,73,52,501 vaccine doses have been administered so far including 12,35,287 in the last 24 hours, under the nationwide vaccination drive.

(With PTI inputs)

Coronavirus update: India records 37,154 new COVID-19 cases; 724 fatalities

India's active caseload of COVID-19 cases is at 4,50,899. The active cases constitute 1.46 per cent of the total cases.

A woman is receiving a dose of COVISHIELD, a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, in Ahmedabad. (Representative image: Reuters)