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India registered 2,71,202 new Covid infections in a day--its highest daily count in eight months. The overall Covid caseload surged to 37,122,164 on Sunday, which includes 7,743 Omicron variant cases, according to the latest data by the Union Health Ministry on coronavirus. With 1,702 cases of new variant of coronavirus in the past day, India saw a rise of 28.17% in its Omicron tally.
The daily deaths due to infection stood at 314. With this, the number of people who have succumbed to the viral disease has risen to 4,86,066. The case fatality rate was 1.31%.
Active cases have increased to 15,50,377, and comprise 4.18% of the total infections. The national Covid-19 recovery rate has decreased to 94.51%, the Health Ministry said.
In a day, the active caseload in the country has increased by 1,32,557. The total number of people who have recovered from coronavirus infection so far has risen to 3,50,85,721.
National Capital Delhi continued to report a dip in new Covid-19 cases on Saturday. The city reported 20,718 fresh infections yesterday. 30 people have lost their lives due to coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to 25,335.
Maharashtra on Saturday recorded 42,462 new coronavirus infections, 749 less than Friday. The state reported 23 deaths due to Covid infection. Also, 125 new Omicron cases came to light in the state yesterday.
The daily Covid cases also declined in West Bengal yesterday. The state added 19,064 cases and 39 deaths in a day.
However, Karnataka saw a big jump in its daily Covid tally on Saturday. Karnataka logged 32,793 new cases of Covid-19, and seven fatalities, taking the tally to 31,86,040 and the death toll to 38,418.
At present, India is witnessing a massive surge in its daily case tally that coincides with a higher rate of testing. According to the data by the India Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in the past 24 hours, 16,65,404 Covid tests were conducted. Since the beginning of the pandemic, India has conducted 70,24,48,838 Covid tests as per the ICMR data.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, India completes one year of world's largest vaccination drive. Last year, on January 16, India initiated the Covid-19 vaccination drive, starting with the Health Care workers. Gradually, the Covid shots were given to frontline workers, senior citizens, and all adults above 18 years. From January 3, 2022, India started administering Covid vaccines to children aged between 15 and 18 years. Besides, the country has also started giving ‘precautionary doses’ to senior citizens and frontline workers.
As per the health ministry, 65.51 crore people have been fully vaccinated in the country so far. Whereas 90.68 crore has received the single shot.
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