India on Tuesday registered 9,110 new coronavirus cases, taking the overall count to 1,08,47,304. The country reported 78 deaths in 24 hours, taking the toll to 1,55,158.

A total of 1,05,48,521 people in India have recovered from the infection so far, pushing the recovery rate to 97.25%. The number of active cases has been reduced to 1,43,625.

India, which started its vaccination programme on January 16, has inoculated 62,59,008 people against the coronavirus so far. In 24 hours, 4,46,646 people were vaccinated. From February 13, the beneficiaries who took their first shot on January 16 will begin receiving the second dose.

A total of 20,25,87,752 samples have tested for the infection up to Tuesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research said. Of these, 6,87,138 were tested on Monday.

Meanwhile, United States’ top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci on Monday said the best defence against emerging variants of the coronavirus pandemic is getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible, Reuters reported. Nearly 700 cases associated with coronavirus variants have been identified in the United States. Of them, 690 cases are from a more transmissible variant first discovered in the United Kingdom called B.1.1.7, which could become the dominant variant in US by March, the officials said.

Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 10.64 crore people and killed over 23.24 lakh, according to John Hopkins University. Over 5.93 crore people have recovered from the infection in the world.