Coronavirus Daily Update: COVID-19 cases explained in charts

India has reported 20,000 COVID-19 new cases, only four states recorded more than 1,000 infections each. Active cases continue to slide, with a drop of over 1,300 cases a day.

Chaitanya Mallapur

December 28, 2020 / 10:49 IST

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As many as 20,021 new novel coronavirus infections were reported in India in the last 24 hours, taking the country's case count to above 1.02 crore, the health ministry’s December 28 update says.

The country also reported 279 deaths and 21,131 recoveries during the period. Active cases have continued to drop, to 2,77,301 with a fall of 1,389 cases in a day.

Kerala reported the most (4,905) new cases followed by Maharashtra (3,314), West Bengal (1,435), Tamil Nadu (1,009) and Madhya Pradesh 946. These five states account for more than half (58 percent) of all the new reported cases in India.

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Maharashtra reported the most (66) deaths followed by West Bengal (29), Kerala (25), Chhattisgarh (18), Madhya Pradesh (18) and Punjab (18). These six states account for 62 percent of all the new deaths in 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.

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