At 168,063, India sees fall in fresh Covid cases; Omicron infections rise to 4461

After several days of continuous spike, India’s daily cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) witnessed a fall, with 168,063 more people testing positive as against 179,723 a day ago, according to data published by the Union health ministry on Tuesday.

Also, as many as 277 more people succumbed due to the viral illness, up from 146 on January 10, the data showed.

With this, the country’s cumulative case count stands at 35,875,790 including 484,213 deaths, according to the data.

The fall in daily infections was largely due to Maharashtra, where, on Monday, as many as 33,470 more samples returned positive test result, down significantly from 44,388 on January 9.

Meanwhile, the nation also added 69,959 recoveries, while active cases rose by 97,827, pushing the total number of such cases to 34,570,131 and 821,446, the bulletin showed. Recoveries, active patients and deaths constitute 96.36 per cent, 2.29 per cent and 1.35 per cent of the overall caseload.

On the Omicron front, the number of people infected with the new variant rose to 4461, with Maharashtra, where 31 new patients were detected, alone contributing total 1257 infections of the strain.

In terms of vaccination, the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered thus far rose to more than 1.52 billion (152 crore). Monday marked the commencement of a new phase in the nationwide inoculation drive, as ‘precautionary’ or booster doses were administered to health care workers, frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities.