The experts from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have said that people who are not wearing masks are driving the Covid-19 pandemic in India.

“I wouldn’t say young or old but irresponsible, less cautious people who are not wearing masks are driving the pandemic in India,” said Professor (Dr) Balram Bhargava, Director General of ICMR.

He also said that three vaccine candidates are the frontrunners in the country.

“Three Covid-19 vaccines are ahead in the race in India. Serum Institute’s vaccine is in phase 2(B) & phase 3 trials and Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila’s vaccines have completed phase 1 trial,” said Dr Bhargava.

His remarks came on a day when India saw 60,975 new cases of the coronavirus disease in the last 24 hours. With this, the nationwide infection tally rose to 31,67,323.

The death toll climbed to 58,390 with 848 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the Union health ministry data showed on Tuesday.

There are 7,04,348 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 22.24 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

However, the country’s recovery rate has been steadily improving. The number of recovered patients surged to 24,04,585 on Tuesday, pushing the recovery rate over 75.92 per cent.

The Covid-19 case fatality rate has declined to 1.84 per cent.

India’s Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 3,68,27,520 samples have been tested up to August 24 with 9,25,383 samples being tested on Monday.