India reports over 380,000 new cases, tally at 20,665,148

NEW DELHI -- India's COVID-19 tally reached 20,665,148 on Wednesday with as many as 382,315 new cases registered during the past 24 hours, confirmed the federal health ministry.

Besides, 3,780 deaths were also reported, taking the death toll to 226,188.

There are still a total of 3,487,229 active cases in the country, with an increase of 40,096 active cases through Tuesday, as 16,951,731 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far across the country.

The COVID-19 figures continue to peak in the country every day. The federal government has ruled out imposing a complete lockdown to contain the worsening situation though some states have imposed night curfews or partial lockdowns.

Delhi has been put under a third successive lockdown till May 10.

While some school examinations are cancelled, others have been postponed in the wake of COVID-19 situation.

The number of daily active cases has been on the rise over the past few weeks. In January the number of daily cases in the country had come down to below 10,000. As many as 9,102 new cases were reported between January 25-26, which was the lowest in the previous 237 days. Prior to that the lowest number of daily new cases were 9,304 registered on June 4, 2020.

January 16 was a crucial day in India's fight against the pandemic as the nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off during the day. So far over 160 million vaccination doses (160,494,188) have been administered to the people across the country.

Online registration began last Wednesday for vaccinating people aged above 18. This is the third phase of COVID-19 vaccination, which began on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities across the country, even as over 294 million tests have been conducted so far.

As many as 294,852,078 tests were conducted till Tuesday, out of which 1,541,299 tests were conducted on Tuesday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday.

The national capital Delhi, which has been one of the most COVID-19- affected places in the country, witnessed 19,953 new cases and 338 deaths through Tuesday.

So far as many as 17,752 people have died in the national capital due to COVID-19, confirmed Delhi's health department.

Two types of vaccines are being administered in India. While the "Covishield" vaccine, made by the "Serum Institute of India (SII)", was supplied to all states, the "Covaxin" vaccine, made by the "Bharat Biotech International Limited", was supplied to only 12 states.

Meanwhile, India received its first doses of Sputnik-V, the Russian-made vaccine, on Saturday.