Coronavirus News Highlights: Today is the 295th day since India implemented a nationwide lockdown to help curb the novel coronavirus pandemic. India added 15,968 new cases to its COVID-19 tally in the last 24 hours taking the total cases to 1,04,95,147, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday. With 17,817 more discharges, the cumulative recoveri
es reached 1,01,29,111. As many as 202 deaths were also reported in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 1,51,529. According to the Ministry of Health, India has 2,14,507 active COVID-19 cases currently. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 18,34,89,114 samples were tested for COVID-19 up to January 12 including 8,36,227 samples tested yesterday. With 729 new COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths being reported on Tuesday, Chhattisgarh's caseload rose to 2,90,813 and the death toll to 3,517, a health official said. The COVID-19 recovery rate in West Bengal rose to 96.91 per cent on Tuesday after 879 more people were discharged from various hospitals in the state, the health department said. The toll increased to 9,975 after 18 fatalities were registered in Bengal, the department said in its bulletin. Globally, more than 9.15 crore people have been infected by the coronavirus and 19.59 lakh have died so far. Many countries have granted emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccines and have started the process of vaccinating healthcare workers and high-risk groups. India's regulator has granted restricted emergency use approval for two vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin.