NEW DELHI, April 19. /TASS/. The number of coronavirus cases in India increased over the past 24 hours by 273,810 and reached 15,061,919. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported on Monday, the number of deaths associated with coronavirus increased by 1,619 per day and amounted to 178,769.

The day before, 261,500 coronavirus cases were detected, and on Saturday, the Ministry of Health reported 234,692 new cases. For the fifth day in a row, India has reported more than 200,000 new cases.

Over the past 24 hours, 1,230,007 people were vaccinated against coronavirus in the country, the total number of vaccinated reached 123,852,566. India remains one of the world leaders in terms of the rate of vaccination of the population, the Ministry of Health noted.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund announced earlier that India has become the next country to approve the use of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. India has become the 60th country to approve the use of the vaccine.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.