India's COVID tally crosses 55-lakh mark with 75k new cases on Tuesday

India's COVID-19 infection tally crossed 55 lakh on Tuesday, while a record 1,01,468 patients recovered in a day, taking their number to 44,97,867 and pushing the recovery rate to 80.86 per cent, the Union Health Ministry data showed.

The coronavirus caseload in the country surged to 55,62,663, with 75,083 new infections being reported in a span of 24 hours, while the death toll climbed to 88,935as the virus claimed 1,053 more lives during the same period, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate was recorded at 1.60 per cent.

There are 9,75,861 active cases of the coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 17.54 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5, and it went past 50 lakh on September 16.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a cumulative total of 6,53,25,779 samples have been tested up to September 21, with 9,33,185 samples being tested on Monday.

Three vaccine candidates in different stages of clinical trial

The government is giving all necessary support for the development of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus in the country and three vaccine candidates are in different phases of clinical trial, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in Parliament on Sunday.

Vardhan said there are 30 vaccine candidates in the country at different states and nearly 2,000 genomes of the novel coronavirus have been sequenced so far in the country.

"Three vaccine candidates are in different stages of clinical trial," Vardhan informed.

Replying to a discussion in Lok Sabha on the coronavirus pandemic, the Health Minister said so far 6.37 crore tests have been conducted in the country which is "probably the highest in the world".

(With inputs from PTI)