India's Covid-19 tally nears 90 lakh after 45,576 new cases in 24 hours
1 min read 19 Nov 2020, 09:38 AM ISTIn the one-day period, 585 people lost their life to the deadly virus, taking the overall fatalities to 1,31,578The total active cases stand at 4,43,303 after a decrease of 3,502 in the last 24 hours
PremiumIndia on Thursday recorded 45,576 new coronavirus infections in a span of 24 hours, government Covid-19 data shows. With this, the country's overall Covid-19 case count since the outbreak stands at 89,58,484.
In the one-day period, 585 people lost their life to the deadly virus, taking the overall fatalities to 1,31,578.
The total active cases stand at 4,43,303 after a decrease of 3,502 in the last 24 hours.
The total discharged cases are at 83,83,603 with 48,493 new recoveries in the last 24 hours.
For the 12th day today, India has reported less than 50,000 daily coronavirus cases.
The Indian Council of Medical Research said that a total of 12,85,08,389 samples have been tested for Covid-19 up to 18 November. Of these, 10,28,203 samples were tested yesterday, the ICMR added.
Covid vaccine: When will you get it?
United States pharma giant Pfizer Inc has made two big positive announcements on coronavirus vaccine developments. After declaring 90% effectiveness of the vaccine in the first release on the third stage of the clinical trial of its Covid-19 vaccine, the drug firm has now said its vaccine candidate has achieved 95% effectiveness.
Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech could secure emergency US and European authorisation for their Covid vaccine next month after final trial results showed it had a 95% success rate and no serious side effects, the drugmakers said.
The efficacy of the shot was found to be consistent across different ages and ethnicities - a promising sign given the disease has disproportionately affected the elderly and certain groups including Black people.
The US Food and Drug Administration could grant emergency-use approval towards the end of the first half of December or early in the second half, BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin told Reuters. Conditional approval in the European Union could be secured in the second half of December, the person added.
"If all goes well I could imagine that we gain approval in the second half of December and start deliveries before Christmas, but really only if all goes positively," Ugur Sahin said.
The success rate of the virus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is the highest of any candidate in late-stage clinical trials so far, and experts said it was a significant achievement in the race to end the Covid-19 pandemic.
With agency inputs
