India’s Omicron tally at 163; active COVID cases drop to 82,267

The number of Omicron cases in the country rose to 163 on Monday with Delhi adding two cases and Karnataka adding five more cases to its tally.

Maharashtra with 54 cases has the highest number of Omicron infections in the country, followed by Delhi (24), Telangana (20), and Karnataka (19). While Rajasthan has logged 17 cases, Gujarat and Kerala have reported 11 cases each. West Bengal has recorded four cases while Chandigarh and Tamil Nadu have reported one case each.

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In Delhi, 12 of the patients have been discharged while the rest 12 are under treatment, the health department said. The new cases in Karnataka have been reported from Dharwad, Bhadravathi, Udupi and Mangaluru.

According to the Union Health Ministry, India on Monday recorded 6,563 COVID-19 cases on Monday, which takes its tally to 3,47,46,838. Active cases, however, have declined to 82,267, the lowest in 572 days.

The death toll climbed to 4,77,554 with 132 fresh fatalities.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 53 days now.

The active cases comprise 0.24 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.39 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

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A decline of 1,646 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

(With inputs from agencies)