Coronavirus Daily Update: Over 24,000 new cases, 355 deaths reported in India as per latest numbers

India reported over 24,000 COVID-19 new cases according to the official update, on December 17. Active cases in India continue to slide further below the 3.5 lakh mark, with a fall of over 9,600 cases in a day. Recoveries above 94 lakh with a recovery rate of 95.3 percent.

Chaitanya Mallapur

December 17, 2020 / 11:17 IST

Source: Reuters

As many as 24,010 new cases of novel coronavirus were reported, with India’s total COVID-19 cases above 99 lakh, as per health ministry’s December 17 update.

India reported 355 new deaths (below the 500 mark for the 12th day) and 33,291 recoveries in the last 24 hours, the latest release shows. Active cases continue to drop, to 3,22,366 with a fall of 9,636 cases in a day.

Kerala reported the most (6,185) new cases in the last 24 hours, followed by West Bengal (2,293), Chhattisgarh (1,661), Delhi (1,547) and Rajasthan (1,247). These top five states account for more than half (54 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-Dec17

Maharashtra reported the most (95) deaths, followed by West Bengal (46), Delhi (32), Kerala (27) and Punjab (18). These five states account for 61 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.

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