Active cases account for 3.85 per cent of the total cases. Of the total infections reported till date, 6,041 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been detected so far which is an increase of 5.01 per cent since yesterday.
India recorded 2,68,833 fresh COVID-19 cases and 402 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.
The fresh infections are 4,631 more than yesterday. On Friday, India logged 2,64,202 fresh COVID-19 cases.
With the addition of new cases, the total cases of coronavirus in the country rose to 3,68,50,962 including 14,17,820 active cases.
Active cases account for 3.85 per cent of the total cases. Of the total infections reported till date, 6,041 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been detected so far which is an increase of 5.01 per cent since yesterday.
Mumbai reported 13,702 new COVID-19 cases, down over 16 per cent from a day ago, and 6 more deaths.
Amid the scare caused by the Omicron variant of coronavirus, a senior official of the Maharashtra health department has said that the Delta strain of the virus still accounts for the maximum number of infection cases in the state as revealed by the genome sequencing of the patients’ samples.
Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary of the health department, in a letter written to his colleagues on Wednesday said that the Delta variant was found in 68 per cent samples, out of the over 4,200 analysed, while the remaining 32 per cent patients were found infected with the Omicron strain.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday said that it seems the national capital has reached its peak in COVID-19 infections and the government will think of easing restrictions when the cases decline to touch 15,000.
He said Delhi is expected to record around 20,000 cases on Saturday, less than Friday’s figure of 24,383. On Thursday, there were 28,867 cases recorded in Delhi, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. ”We can say that Delhi has reached a peak in terms of cases. Cases have started slowing down. Let’s see when the decline happens,” he told reporters.
He reiterated that the hospitalization rate has stabilized in Delhi.
When asked whether restrictions will be eased in Delhi as cases have come down, he said, ”Let’s wait. The cases have started declining. They came down to 24,000 yesterday and will come down to 20000 today. Let them come down to 15,000 or below and then we will see.”
As many as 16,13,740 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours wherein a daily positivity rate of 16.66 per cent was observed.
Further, 70.07 crore total tests to detect the presence of the virus in individuals have been conducted so far in which a weekly positivity rate of 12.84 per cent was observed.
However, the death toll of those infected with the virus reached 4,85,752 with 402 more fatalities, the health ministry said.
Also, 1,22,684 new recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours thereby taking the total tally to 3,49,47,390. The recovery rate is currently at 94.83 per cent.
India has, meanwhile, upscaled its vaccine drive. 156.02 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.