India on Wednesday morning reported 18,833 new coronavirus cases, pushing the infection tally to 3,38,71,881 since the pandemic first broke out in January last year. On Tuesday, India had recorded 18,346 cases.

The toll climbed by 263 to 4,49,260. The number of active cases dropped to 2,46,687 – the lowest in 203 days, the health ministry said.

The active cases comprise 0.73% of all existing infections – the lowest since March 2020.

The recovery rate among coronavirus patients stood at 97.94% as of Wednesday – highest since March last year. So far, 3,31,75,656 people have recovered from the disease in the country.

More than 92 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered across India. Of these, 59.48 lakh doses were administered over the last 24 hours.

The Director of Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Dr Anurag Thakur, on Wednesday said that people with compromised health might eventually require booster shots after the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine, News18 reported.

The Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology is affiliated with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

“Since we do not know the exact infection status of people, it may be more practical to give boosters to this subgroup than to have complex measurements and plans,” Thakur said.

The sub-group, according to Thakur, should include healthcare workers and vulnerable sections like the elderly or those with comorbidities.

“Covid-19 infection along with two vaccine doses is expected to give immunity as strong as or better than two doses plus booster,” he said. “So a large number of Indians may not need boosters at this time, based on the high seropositivity of over 60% in the ICMR [Indian Council of Medical Research] June 2021 survey.”

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization on Tuesday said that it may clear Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for emergency use.

Emergency use listing is a procedure by the WHO to approve vaccines and other products for use during public health emergencies. The duration of the emergency use listing process depends on the quality of the data submitted by the vaccine manufacturer.

“WHO and an independent group of experts are scheduled to meet next week to carry out the risk/benefit assessment and come to a final decision whether to grant Emergency Use Listing to Covaxin,” the health body said in a tweet.

Approval from the WHO will allow Bharat Biotech to export its vaccines. Additionally, it will facilitate easier international travel of Indian citizens who have been administered Covaxin.

The WHO on Tuesday also said that misinformation about vaccines is resulting in deaths and that the fatality rate has increased among unvaccinated people, AFP reported.

“From the countries that are providing that information, the rate of hospitalisation and death is by far really among those who are unvaccinated,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead.

So far, 634.45 crore people have been vaccinated across the world, according to Johns Hopkins University. The coronavirus has infected over 23.58 crore people and caused more than 48.16 lakh deaths since the pandemic broke out in December 2019.