India added 2,71,202 new coronavirus infections, taking the total tally of Covid-19 cases to 3,71,22,164, including 7,743 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union health ministry data. The country saw1,702 new cases of Omicron variant, the highest in a single day so far, and an increase of 28.17%. Experts said it is not possible to undertake genome sequencing of each and every sample, but stressed that this wave is largely being driven by Omicron.
The active cases have increased to 15,50,377, the highest in 225 days, while the death toll has climbed to 4,86,066 with 314 fresh fatalities, the data shows.
The active cases comprises 4.18% of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has decreased to 94.51%, the ministry said. An increase of 1,32,557 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 case- load in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 16. 28%, while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 13. 69%, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,50,85,721, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1. 31%. The 314 new fatalities include106 from Kerala and 39 from West Bengal.
A total of 4,86,066 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,41,779 from Maharashtra, 50,674 from Kerala, 38,418 from Karnataka, 36,967 from Tamil Nadu, 25,335 from Delhi, 22,953 from Uttar Pradesh and 20,052 from West Bengal.
After slowing down a bit during the weekends and the beginning of the week, cases are again going through a rapid surge. Maharashtra reported a 35% increase in cases while the rise was 50% for Karnataka. In Kerala, cases breached the 10,000 mark for the first time since October 20. The rapid increase in cases has pushed active cases to more than 10,00,000, Inching towards the 50,000 daily mark, Maharashtra added 46,723 cases. With this, Maharashtra’s case load crossed 70,00,000.
