New Delhi: India recorded 8,774 fresh infections in the past 24 hours. The recovery rate at 98.34 per cent accounted for 9,481 recuperations in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to 3,39,98,278. The daily positivity rate stood at 0.80 per cent, less than 2 per cent for 55 consecutive days.
The number of active cases stood at 1,05,691; lowest in 543 days accounting for 0.31 per cent of the total number of cases. The active cases reported a decline by 1328 in the last 24 hours. However, the mortality rate recorded at 1.35 per cent reported a spike in deaths recording 621 fatalities, taking the cumulative death toll to 4,68,554.
PM Modi chaired an emergency meeting on the new variant on Saturday. Following which a list of guidelines was forwarded to all states instructing them to stay put for untoward situations and ramp up screening and vaccinating. Amid fears of the spread of new variant ‘Omicron’, two South African nationals have tested positive for the coronavirus in Bengaluru. Officials inform that their samples have been sent for further tests to ascertain about the variant.
Meanwhile, the WHO has instructed all Southeast Asian nations to scale up surveillance, strengthen public health and social measures, and enhance vaccination coverage. Several nations banned flights from South Africa, while few of them tightened restrictions on international arrivals.
As per the statistics reported to Ministry of Family Health and Welfare, so far 121.94 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the country , including 82.86 lakh doses given in the last 24 hours.