New Delhi, December 21: The COVID-19 tally in India on Monday stood at 1,00,55,560 with 24,337 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours. With the latest numbers by the Health Ministry, the total number of active cases in the country now stands at 3,03,639 while as many as 96,06,111 COVID-19 patients have recovered from the infection with 25,709 recoveries in the past 24 hours. India reported 333 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday, pushing the death toll in the country to 1,45,810. Coronavirus Is of Natural Origin, Not Invention of Man, Says Russian Vaccine Maker.

The COVID-19 recovery rate in India has improved and now stands at 95.51 percent while the fatality rate is 1.45 as percent. A total of 16,20,98,329  samples have been tested for COVID-19 till now. Of these, 9,00,134 samples were tested on Saturday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said. On Saturday, India crossed 1 crore COVID-19 cases adding 10 lakh infections in nearly a month, the Union Health ministry data said.

On Monday, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that India may begin vaccinating people against coronavirus in January 2021 and the government's first priority has been safety and efficacy of the vaccine. "I personally feel that maybe in January in any stage or any week, there can be a time when are in a position to give the first Covid vaccine shot to people of India," Vardhan said.  The Minister further added that the worst is over concerning coronavirus in the country but people still need to follow COVID-19 appropriate behaviour to stay safe.

Globally, the overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 76.7 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.69 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on Monday, the current global caseload and death toll stood at 76,789,781 and 1,692,578, respectively.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 21, 2020 10:24 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).