Coronavirus Daily Update: COVID-19 cases explained in charts

India reported less than 23,000 COVID-19 new cases according to the official update, on December 18. New cases below 30,000 for fifth day in a row. Active cases in India continue to slide below the 3.2 lakh mark, with a fall of over 8,500 cases in a day. Recoveries above 95 lakh with a recovery rate of 95.4 percent.

Chaitanya Mallapur

December 18, 2020 / 20:41 IST

As many as 22,890 new cases of novel coronavirus were reported, with India’s total COVID-19 cases above 99 lakh, inching towards the 1 crore mark, as per health ministry’s December 18 update.

India reported 338 new deaths (below the 500 mark for the 13th day) and 31,087 recoveries in the last 24 hours, the latest release shows. Active cases continue to drop, to 3,13,831 with a fall of 8,535 cases in a day.

Kerala reported the most (4,969) new cases in the last 24 hours, followed by West Bengal (2,245), Chhattisgarh (1,584), Uttar Pradesh (1,526) and Delhi (1,363). These five states account for 51 percent of all the new cases reported in India. Due to data reconciliation activity by Maharashtra, updated figures for the state are awaited.

covid-19-update-Dec18

Maharashtra reported the most (65) deaths, followed by West Bengal (44), Delhi (35), Kerala (27) and Uttar Pradesh (18). These five states account for 56 percent of all the new deaths reported across the country.

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.

Show