KATHMANDU, MARCH 23

According to the data shared by World Health Organization (WHO) and Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus resource centre, India is the third worst-affected country in terms of Covid-19 after the United States and Brazil.

As of today, India's total Covid-19 tally stands at 11,686,796. While the US tops the chart with 29,869,517 total cases, Brazil follows second with 12,047,526 total cases till date, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus resource centre.

The pandemic has surged in India in the past week with more than 40,000 fresh cases reported in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, the country reported 199 deaths in the past 24 hours taking the total death toll to 160,166.

In a further worrying observation by the WHO, the global coronavirus deaths have also seen a rise over the past six weeks.

Last year today, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a lockdown in the country when the case tally owing to the viral disease was less than 500, in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus. The lockdown had come into effect from the midnight of March 24, then.

Meanwhile, India is also the second country after the United States in terms of total vaccines administered and the number of doses being administered daily. Two vaccines are currently being used in India -- Covishield, the AstraZeneca vaccine locally manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.