India's COVID-19 tally reaches 11,229,398 as daily cases on rise

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 11,229,398 on Monday as 18,711 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the health ministry.
   
According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 157,853 as 97 COVID-19 patients died since Sunday morning.
   
There are still 188,747 active cases in the country, while 10,882,798 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment. There was an increase of 4,224 active cases during the previous 24 hours, out of which 5,090 were reported from the southwestern state of Maharashtra alone.
   
The number of daily active cases had been on the rise over the past few days, as another wave of COVID-19 looms large in India. Till a few weeks ago, the number of daily cases had come down to below 10,000.
   
As many 9,102 new cases were reported between Jan. 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.
   Jan. 16 was a crucial day in India's fight against the pandemic as the nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off on the day. So far nearly 21 million people, mainly health workers, have been vaccinated across the country.
   
Meanwhile, the government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities across the country, as nearly 222 million tests have been conducted so far.
   
As many as 221,968,271 tests have been conducted till Sunday, out of which 537,764 tests were conducted on Sunday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Monday.
   
The national capital Delhi, which has been one of the most COVID-19 affected places in the country, has been witnessing comparatively a lesser number of cases over the past several months. As many as 286 new cases and two deaths were registered in the city through Sunday.
   
So far as many as 10,921 people have died in the national capital due to COVID-19, confirmed the Delhi's health department.
   
Two types of vaccines are being administered to the people 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.