New Delhi: India recorded 7,081 fresh infections in the past 24 hours. The recovery rate at 98.38 per cent accounted for 7,469 recuperations in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to 3,41,78,940. The daily positivity rate stood at 0.58 per cent, less than 2 per cent for 76 consecutive days.
The number of active cases stood at 83,913, lowest in 570 days accounting for 0.24 per cent of the total number of cases. The active cases reported a decline by 625 in the last 24 hours. However, the mortality rate recorded at 1.37 per cent reported a spike in deaths recording 624 fatalities, taking the cumulative death toll to 4,77,422.
Karnataka and Kerala reported six and four cases respectively, while three more persons in Maharashtra also tested positive for the variant on Saturday. The recent infections took the tally to 126, scrambling authorities. Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar tweeted the detection of two cluster outbreaks of COVID from two educational institutions in Dakshina Kannada on Saturday. “Cluster 1: 14 cases (of which 4 are Omicron). Cluster 2: 19 cases (1 is Omicron). A traveller from UK has also tested positive for Omicron,” the tweet read.
Meanwhile, in Kerala two cases of the South African variant were detected from Thiruvananthapuram in patients aged 17 and 44. One case was detected in Malappuram in a person aged 37 and another was a 49-year-old patient from Thrissur district. The three who tested positive in Maharashtra include a couple and their 13-year-old daughter.
The Centre has warned it is likely that the spread of the new variant will outclass the Delta variant where there is community transmission. According to the govt data for Omicron Maharashtra recorded 43 cases, Delhi 22, Rajasthan 17 and Karnataka 14 Telangana 8 and Gujarat 7, with Kerala detecting 11. Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal so far reported only one case each.