Over 2.82 lakh new Covid cases were reported in India over the past 24 hours, a rise of 18 per cent from yesterday’s case count. The positivity rate, which is an indicator of the spread of the infection, has climbed marginally from 14.43 per cent to 15.13 per cent.
The country has so far reported 8,961 cases of the fast-spreading Omicron variant, which is driving the third wave of the pandemic. The Omicron count rose by 0.79 per cent since yesterday. A total of 441 deaths due to the infection were reported in the past 24 hours — significantly higher than yesterday’s count of 310. Active caseload currently stands at 18.31 lakh, the Health Ministry said in its bulletin.
Over 158 crore doses of vaccines have been administered under the nationwide drive as the government pushes hard to expand coverage amid the third wave of infections.
A week after listing conditions that do not require testing, the government yesterday said testing numbers were falling and states need to ramp up.
With the third wave pushing up daily case counts in major cities, governments have been forced to bring back curbs on public movement that had been eased after the second wave.
With inputs from NDTV