Maharashtra's coronavirus caseload climbed to 62,20,207 on Monday after 6,017 people tested positive for the infection, the lowest since February 22, while the death toll jumped to 1,27,097 as 66 patients succumbed to COVID-19, a health department official said.

The fresh COVID-19 deaths were the lowest in the last one week. The official said as many as 13,051 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, pushing the number of recovered cases to 59,93,401.

The state now has 96,375 active COVID-19 cases. Maharashtra's COVID-19 recovery rate is 96.35 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.04 per cent, the official said.

Significantly Hingoli, Wardha and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra did not report any new coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours.

According to the official, Mumbai reported 403 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 7,31,561, while the death toll increased to 15,716 with 14 fresh fatalities.

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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COVID-19: At 6,017, Maharashtra reports lowest daily count since February 22; active cases below 1 lakh

The official said as many as 13,051 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, pushing the number of recovered cases to 59,93,401.

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