India reports 13,154 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, 43% higher than yesterday

New Delhi: India’s Omicron cases rose to 961 across the country, an increase of 180 infections reported a day before, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Thursday.

The health ministry also said as many as 13,154 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) were reported in the past 24 hours, taking the country’s tally to over 34.8 million. Also, 268 people succumbed to the coronavirus disease in the same period and the country’s death toll climbed to 480,860, the health ministry’s data also showed.

Delhi with 263 Omicron cases followed by Maharashtra with 252 and Gujarat with 97 cases added the most to the national tally of the highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus. The variant has now been detected from 22 states and Union territories.

Meanwhile, 320 of the 961 Omicron patients have been discharged, the ministry’s data showed.

Among other states, Rajasthan and Kerala have reported 69 and 65 Omicron cases respectively. In Telangana, 62 people have so far tested positive for the variant while in Tamil Nadu the count stood at 45. Karnataka has logged 34 cases.

Andhra Pradesh (16 cases), Haryana (12 cases) and West Bengal (11 cases) have all so far seen less than 20 infections of the variant.

The count remained in single digits in Madhya Pradesh (9 cases), Odisha (9 cases), Uttarakhand (4 cases), Chandigarh (3 cases), Jammu and Kashmir (3 cases), Uttar Pradesh (2 cases), Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Manipur and Punjab (1 case each).

The active caseload increased by 5,400 cases to reach 82,402 from the 77,002 reported previously on Wednesday.

With 7,486 recoveries across the country in 24 hours, total recoveries so far rose to 34,258,778 with a recovery rate of 98.38%. More than 67.64 crore samples have so far been tested for the disease, the health ministry said.

On the vaccination front, the cumulative doses administered crossed the 1.43 billion mark. “With the administration of 63,91,282 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 143.83 Cr (1,43,83,22,742) as per provisional reports till 7 am today,” the ministry said in a statement.