India's Covid-19 tally nears 5 mn with one-fifth of total cases active

India took six months to reach the first million covid cases and it has gone from four to 4.9 million in 11 days

With the number of coronavirus cases touching nearly five million and deaths crossing 80,000, India is closing the gap with the US, which has over 6.5 million cases, the highest in the world.

India took six months to reach the first million Covid-19 cases, but has gone from four to 4.9 million in 

11 days.

Meanwhile, the race for the Covid-19 vaccine is also gathering pace.

Amongst three ongoing clinical trials for the vaccine in India, Zydus Cadila and Bharat Biotech have completed recruitments for phase two trial, while Serum Institute is expecting clearance to start phase three trial across 14 sites on 1,500