India reports 1,00,636 new Covid-19 cases, 2,427 deaths in 24 hours

​​​NEW DELHI: India's total tally of COVID-19 cases surged to 2,89,09,975 with 1,00,636 new infections being reported in a day, while the recoveries have crossed 2.71 crores, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

The death count increased to 3,49,186 with 2,427 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Meanwhile, The screening of children for clinical trials of Covaxin will start at AIIMS in Delhi soon, days after similar trials started at AIIMS in Patna, sources have said. The All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in the national capital will conduct clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Bharat Biotech to see if it is suitable for children between two and 18 years old.

Experts have warned that a possible third wave can bring as much devastation as the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic if enough people are not vaccinated against the virus, and that children could be its prime target.

As the Covid-19 situation improves, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Maharashtra are among the states/UTs that have started have the process of gradual unlocking. On Saturday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the second phase of unlocking Delhi as new cases dropped to 414, the lowest in over 2 months. In unlock 2.0, Kejriwal allowed markets and shopping malls to reopen from Monday on an odd-even system between 10 am and 8 pm daily, and the start of Delhi Metro at 50% capacity.

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