Coronavirus Daily Update: COVID-19 cases explained in charts

India reported over 13,000 COVID-19 new cases according to the official update, on January 20, 2021. Active cases drop below 2 lakh cases with a fall of over 3000 cases in a day. Recoveries above 1 crore with a recovery rate of 96.7 percent. Over 6 lakh beneficiaries vaccinated till date.

Chaitanya Mallapur

January 20, 2021 / 11:31 IST

File image of a healthcare volunteer receiving a dummy COVID-19 vaccine as part of a vaccination dry run (Image: News18)

As many as 13,823 new cases of novel coronavirus were reported, with India’s total COVID-19 cases now above 1.05 crore, as per the health ministry’s January 20 update.

India reported 162 new deaths and 16,988 new recoveries in the last 24 hours, the latest release show. Active cases drop to 1,97,201 with a fall of 3,327 cases on January 20.

Kerala reported the most (6,186) new cases in the last 24 hours, followed by Maharashtra (2,294), Karnataka (645), Tamil Nadu (543), and Gujarat (485). These five states account for 73 percent of all the new cases reported in India.

2021-covid-19-update (1) Jan 20

Maharashtra also reported the most (50) new deaths, followed by Kerala (26), West Bengal (11), Chhattisgarh (10), and Delhi (10). These five states account for 66 percent of all the new deaths reported across the country.

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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