NEW DELHI: As India's COVID-19 infection tally sprinted past 40 lakh, just 13 days after it crossed 30 lakh, All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) Director Dr Randeep Guleria has said that the country is witnessing a second wave of infections in certain regions and that cases will rise for some more months.

Speaking to a channel, Guleria said that the pandemic is likely to stay till 2021.

“We can’t say that the pandemic will not spillover to 2021 but what we can say is that the curve will be flatter instead of rising very steeply. We should be able to say the pandemic is ending early next year,” Dr Guleria told the channel.

The AIIMS director said that if everything goes well, COVID-19 vaccine will be ready by the end of 2020.

India reported 86,432 cases being reported on Saturday, pushing the tally to 40,23,179. Recoveries have surged to 31,07,223 as the recovery rate rose to 77.23 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The death toll climbed to 69,561 with 1,089 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, data updated at 8 am showed.

India's COVID-19 cases jumped from 10 lakh to 20 lakh in 21 days. It took 16 more days to race past 30 lakh and 13 days more to cross the 40-lakh mark. It took 110 days for the COVID-19 cases in the country to reach one lakh while it had taken 59 days more to go past the 10-lakh post.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 4,77,38,491 samples have been tested up to September 4 with 10,59,346 samples being tested on Friday.