About 70% of the eligible population has received two primary vaccine does and a booster campaign for health workers and at-risk population is underway.
New Delhi: India’s daily Covid graph saw a worrying upward curve today as the country added 3.17 lakh Covid cases – a new high in the third wave – taking the tally to 3.82 crore. At the global level, India is the second worst-hit country after the US.
The overall count of highly infectious Omicron variant reached 8,209 with 29 states reporting the new strain. Maharashtra has reported 1,738 cases, the most in the country, followed by West Bengal, where 1,672 people have been infected with Omicron.
The active cases now comprise 5.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.69 per cent. An increase of 93,051 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry data updated this morning.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 16.41 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 16.06 per cent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive has exceeded 159.67 crore, the ministry said.
Maharashtra, one of the worst-hit states by the Covid pandemic, recorded 43,697 new coronavirus infections, 10 per cent more than the previous day, including 214 Omicron infections, and also saw 49 fatalities. The fresh Omicron cases took the tally of those infected with this strain to 1,860.
Delhi reported 13,785 new Covid cases and 35 deaths in the last 24 hours. According to the health bulletin of the Delhi government, the active number of COVID patients in the city reached 75,282. Out of these, 58,501 patients are in home isolation and 2,624 are admitted to hospitals.
As many as 491 people have died of Covid during the past 24-hour period, according to the Health Ministry. This includes 134 deaths in Kerala in the last few months, added based on pending appeals after the last Supreme Court guidelines. Thirteen states have reported more than 10 deaths.
Authorities have said Omicron was causing fewer hospitalizations and deaths than the Delta variant, which killed hundreds of thousands last year.
About 70% of the eligible population has received two primary vaccine does and a booster campaign for health workers and at-risk population is underway. But reports from some states suggest that those unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated make up more than 90% of intensive care patients.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday lashed out at the Andhra Pradesh and Bihar governments, and grilled others – including Kerala – over the failure of, or delay in, payment of compensation to the families of those who died of Covid. “It is very unfortunate that despite earlier direction to pay compensation… time and again directions are issued,” the court said.
The coronavirus has killed at least 5,480,481 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to news agency AFP.
