COVID-19 second wave: Fresh cases increase by 66% in a week

Registering an increase for the 16th day in a row, the active cases in India have increased to 4,21,066

Moneycontrol News

March 26, 2021 / 01:02 PM IST

(Image: AP)

India has been reporting an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases, indicating that the second wave is likely to wreak more havoc despite the ongoing mass vaccination drive.

On March 26, India reported 59,118 new coronavirus infections in a day, the highest single-day rise so far this year. With this, the nationwide COVID-19 tally has mounted to 1,18,46,652, while the death toll increased to 1,60,949 with 257 daily new fatalities.

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Registering an increase for the 16th day in a row, the active cases have increased to 4,21,066, breaching the 4 lakh-mark again after around three-and-half months.

For the week ending March 25, India reported an average of 47,442 new infections every day. This is the highest seven-day average since October 28, as per a Hindustan Times report.

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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