India logs 22,270 fresh COVID-19 cases, daily positivity rate at 1.8%

Daily COVID-19 cases in the country have remained below one lakh for 13 consecutive days now.

PTI

February 19, 2022 / 13:45 IST

Image: AP (Representational image)

India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 4,28,02,505 on Saturday with 22,270 more people testing positive for the viral disease, while the number of active cases came down to 2,53,739, according to Union health ministry data.

The death toll reached 5,11,230 with 325 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. Daily COVID-19 cases in the country have remained below one lakh for 13 consecutive days now.

The 2,53,739 active cases comprise 0.59 per cent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 98.21 per cent, the ministry said. A reduction of 38,353 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.80 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.50 per cent, the ministry said. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,20,37,536. The case fatality rate stood at 1.19 per cent, it said.

The cumulative number of doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 175.03 crore. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

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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