Coronavirus Daily Update: COVID-19 cases explained in charts

India reported more than 18,000 COVID-19 new cases on March 8. Active cases rise above 1.88 even as more than 2.09 crore beneficiaries have been vaccinated till date.

Chaitanya Mallapur

March 08, 2021 / 11:23 IST

Representative image (AP)

As many as 18,599 new novel coronavirus infections were reported in the last 24 hours, pushing India’s COVID-19 case numbers to above 1.12 crore, the health ministry’s March 8 update said.

The country reported 97 new deaths and 14,278 new recoveries during the period, the latest release says. As many as 2,09,89,010 vaccination doses were administered across the country.

Active cases rose to 1,88,747 with an increase of 4,224 cases on March 8. Maharashtra again accounts for the most —99,205 or 53 percent—active cases followed by Kerala (41,162) and Punjab (7,497).

Maharashtra also reported the highest (11,141 or 60 percent) new cases in the last 24 hours followed by Kerala (2,100), Punjab (1,043), Karnataka (622) and Gujarat (575). These five states together account for 83 percent of all the new cases reported in the country.

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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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