India’s active caseload of Covid-19 continued to rise this week sparking fears of a fresh wave of the pandemic in the country.
Authorities reported over 14,200 new cases in 24 hours according to the health ministry’s update as of 8 a.m on Feb. 21. That’s more than the 11,667 recoveries in the same period, taking active cases above 1.45 lakh.
This is the first time India has reported over 14,000 new cases since Jan. 29. The country has seen more new cases come up than daily recoveries for four consecutive days now.
On Sunday, the ministry reported 90 deaths with the total tally at over 1.56 lakh. This accounts for about 1.4% of the more than 1.09 crore coronavirus cases detected in India.
Globally, cases crossed 110.9 million leaving over 2.4 million dead.
Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be given European Union approval in the next two to four weeks. France’s Health Minister called for tighter restrictions in the Nice area, which is facing a surge in coronavirus infections.
Meanwhile, researchers from Edinburgh University said that a new variant detected in Nigeria, which might have similar mutations to the one in South Africa, is not yet of concern.
Follow the developments around the Covid-19 outbreak here.