India on Tuesday registered 25,404 new coronavirus cases, which pushed the country’s overall tally of infections since the outbreak of the pandemic in January last year to 3,32,89,579. The new cases were 6.78% lower than Monday’s count of 27,254.

The country’s toll rose to 4,43,213 as it recorded 339 deaths in the last day. On Tuesday morning, India’s count of active cases stood at 3,62,207 while the number of recoveries was 3,24,84,159.

Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

The number of vaccine doses administered in India since the beginning of the immunisation drive in January has crossed 75 crore. On Monday alone, over 78 lakh vaccine doses were administered in the country.

On Monday, NITI Aayog Member (Health) VK Paul said that people will need to continue wearing masks through the next year also, NDTV reported.

Paul added: “Wearing the mask will not go away for some time. My view is that it will be a combination of vaccines, drugs, and reasonably disciplined behaviour that will finally see us through.”

Several countries in the world are also considering rolling out booster shots of Covid-19 vaccines. The United Kingdom is on Tuesday scheduled to announce a plan to provide additional shots to its vulnerable population, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, a study published in medical journal The Lancet on Monday said that it was not appropriate administer booster doses to the general population at this stage of the pandemic as the efficacy of the shots against severe cases, even for the Delta variant, was high.

The coronavirus has globally infected over 22.52 crore people and killed more than 46.39 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.