India overtakes China in coronavirus cases, 11th most affected: Report

India has more coronavirus cases than China, according to the Worldometers.info website on Friday evening.
 

India had 83,072 cases at 7.46pm IST compared to China's 82,933, said the website, which is widely quoted in the world media. The US, Spain and Russia are ranked first, second and third among the 10 countries with most number of cases. India is now at number 11 by overtaking China, where the disease originated.
 

As many as 2,657 people have died from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India, compared to China’s figure of 4,633, said the website at 7.25 p.m. The US, Spain and Russia are the worst affected countries in terms of deaths.

 

India’s health ministry, which publishes data only once a day, said the country had 81,970 cases and 2,649 deaths from the disease till Friday evening. The country’s doubling rate of coronavirus infection cases has slowed down to 13.9 days, said Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday, referring to the time it takes for the number of cases to double.
 

Any vaccine to fight the coronavirus will not be ready for use for at least two years, the chief executive of Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which no longer makes vaccines itself, told a German newspaper, according to Reuters.
 

Experts have said no vaccine is expected to be ready for use until at least 2021, as they must be widely tested in humans before being administered to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people to prevent infection.