PremiumThe Union health ministry on Monday said that positive samples collected from sentinel sites revealed the presence of all Omicron variants in the community
NEW DELHI: India reported 197 fresh coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry said in an update on Thursday. The country’s active caseload has declined to 2,309, while the total number of cases reported since the pandemic hit in 2020 rose to 4,46,80,583. India has recorded 5,30,723 covid deaths till date.
As of now, Karnataka has 194 active cases, Kerala has 1353 active cases, Maharashtra has 145 cases, Odisha 96 cases, Rajasthan 49 cases, Tamil Nadu 59, Uttar Pradesh 21, and West Bengal has 54 active cases.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.10%, while the weekly positivity rate stood at 0.11%. Active cases comprise 0.01% of the total infections. The recovery rate stands at 98.80%, according to the health ministry.
According to the ministry, 220.14 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive. In the last 24 hours, 61,680 vaccine doses were given.
Meanwhile, a surge in infections in China and countries such as the US, Australia, and Japan have led to fresh concerns about impending waves. As a result, India has made RT-PCR tests mandatory for flyers coming from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand from 1 January. They will have to upload their reports on the Air Suvidha portal before travel. This is in addition to the 2% random testing of all international passengers on their arrival at an Indian airport.
INSACOG under the supervision of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has kept up with genome sequencing to track any new variant. Hospitals are also being constantly monitored to keep a tab on lnfluenza-like illness (lLl) & SARI cases.
Government officials have warned that the next few days would be crucial in determining the possibility of a resurgence of covid-19 cases in India.
The Union health ministry on Monday said that positive samples collected from sentinel sites revealed the presence of all Omicron variants in the community. The government’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) sentinel sites referred 324 COVID19 positive samples for sequencing to 22 INSACOG labs. The samples were collected from 29 December to 7 January from different sentinel location like hospitals.