India reports 2,876 new COVID-19 cases, 98 deaths in last 24 hours

In nine states and UTs, marginal rise in active coronavirus caseload was registered, mainly due to increase in tests to detect fresh infections

Sumi Sukanya Dutta

March 16, 2022 / 09:28 IST

India reported 2,876 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, a tad higher than infections reported a day before, though fresh incidents remained under 5,000 for the tenth day in a row.

The tally takes the total number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the country to 4,29,98, 938.

A total of 98 deaths due to the infectious disease were also recorded, raising the number of COVID-19 fatalities to 5,16,072. Of these new deaths, 54 were backlog deaths reported by Kerala as part of its data reconciliation exercise.

Kerala, at 18, also reported the highest coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, followed by Punjab which registered 12 fatalities in a day. Twenty-eight states and UTs, however, did not report any COVID-19 deaths during the period.

Also read: Analysis: Co-morbidity clause removed for 60-plus to get COVID-19 booster shots. Will it draw more people to vax centres?

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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