India's Covid-19 toll nears 17,000

INDIA reported 18,522 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, with this the tally reached to 566,840 as on Tuesday (30). The recovery rate further improved to 59.06 per cent.

The death toll has climbed to 16,893 with 418 new fatalities in 24 hours, according to the health ministry. The number of active cases stands at 215,125, while 334,821 patients have recovered. In past 24 hours, 13,099 patients were declared cured from the disease.

India prime minister Narendra Modi will address the nation later today as the country enters "unlock 2" from July 1. The home ministry has issued guidelines, further easing the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus lockdown.

On June 28, 19,906 fresh cases were reported while on Monday (29) 19,459 new cases were registered, according to the health ministry.

The country's 'first' indigenous Covid-19 vaccine COVAXIN, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and NIV, has got the nod for human clinical trials from the Drug Controller General of India

According to medical research body ICMR a total of 8,608,654 samples have been tested up to June 29, with 210,292 samples tested on Monday.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has warned the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, which emerged in China at least six months ago, is still to come.

"We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over," he said, adding that "although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up."