In charts | What you need to know about the COVID-19 surge right now

India reported more than 81,000 COVID-19 new cases on April 2, highest in 183 days. Active cases rose to 6.14 lakh mark. Over 6.87 crore vaccinations administered till date.

Moneycontrol News

April 02, 2021 / 12:46 IST

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India’s COVID-19 case tally has risen above 1.23 crore with 81,466 new cases reported, as per the health ministry’s April 2 update. New cases rose 13 percent in a single day, the highest in 183 days.

April 2 Daily New Cases and Moving Avg

India reported 469 new deaths (highest in 117 days) and 50,356 new recoveries in the last 24 hours, the latest release showed. More than 6.87 crore vaccinations have been administered across India, according to the April 2 update, with 36,71,242 new vaccinations reported in a day. Of the total vaccinations administered to date, 86 percent have received their first dose while 14 percent have received the second. Among states, Maharashtra has administered the most vaccine doses, at 6.52 million, followed by Gujarat at 6.17 million and Rajasthan at 6.01 million.India now ranks 5th in the world with 6,14,696 active cases, an increase of 30,641 cases in 24 hours, as per the April 2 update. Maharashtra has the most (3,67,897 or 60 percent) active cases in the country, followed by Karnataka (30,884) and Chhattisgarh (28,987).

Maharashtra reported the most (43,183 or 53 percent) new cases in the last 24 hours, followed by Chhattisgarh (4,617), Karnataka (4,234), Punjab (3,161) and Tamil Nadu (2,817). These five states account for 71 percent of all the new cases reported in India.

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Maharashtra also reported the most 249 or 53 percent new deaths, followed by Punjab (58), Chhattisgarh (34), Tamil Nadu (19) and Karnataka (18). These five states account for 80 percent of all the new deaths reported across the country.

About 13 states and union territories did not report any deaths today. These include Andaman and Nicobar, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli/Daman and Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim and Tripura. India’s recovery rate further slides down to 93.7 percent. Maharashtra recorded 32,641 new recoveries, the most, followed by Punjab (2,291), Gujarat (2,015), Kerala (1,835) and Tamil Nadu (1,634).

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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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