Coronavirus Daily Update: COVID-19 cases explained in charts

Active cases rise for the fifth day, as India reports over 14,000 new COVID-19 infections on February 22. Active cases have again risen above the 1.50 lakh-mark. More than 1.1 crore beneficiaries have been vaccinated till date.

Chaitanya Mallapur

February 22, 2021 / 11:01 IST

The Centre on February 20 said five states - Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh - are experiencing an upsurge in daily cases.

As many as 14,199 new cases of novel coronavirus were reported in the last 24 hours, with India’s total COVID-19 cases now topping 1.10 crore, the health ministry’s February 22, 2021 update shows. India reported 83 new deaths and 9,695 new recoveries in the last 24 hours, the release shows.

While 1,11,16,854 beneficiaries have been vaccinated across India so far, active cases continued to rise for the fifth consecutive day, with an increase of 4,421 cases to 1,50,055 on February 22.

Maharashtra reported the most (6,971) new cases followed by Kerala (4,070), Tamil Nadu (452), Karnataka (413) and Punjab (348). These five states account for 86 percent of all the new cases in the country.

2021-covid-19-update (1)_Feb22

Maharashtra reported the most (35) new deaths followed by Kerala (15), Punjab (six), Chhattisgarh (five) and Madhya Pradesh (four). These five states account for 78 percent of all the new deaths in 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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