New Delhi: India’s Covid curve showed marginal improvement today as the country reported 2.58 lakh cases, which is around 5 per cent lower than yesterday. As many as 385 people have died of Covid during the past 24-hour period, according to the Health Ministry.
The country’s caseload now stands at 3.73 crore. This includes 8,209 cases of the Omicron variant which is now present in 29 states.
The active cases now comprise 4.43 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 94.27 per cent. The daily positivity rate is up from 16.28% to 19.65% while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 14.41 per cent.
Maharashtra, one of the worst-hit states by the Covid pandemic, recorded 41,327 new coronavirus infections, 1,135 less than the day before, and 29 deaths. The overall caseload now stands at 72,11,810 and the death toll at 1,41,808. Eight new Omicron cases have been reported in the state, raising the tally of such infections to 1,738.
Delhi on Sunday reported 18,286 COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths, while the positivity rate dropped to 27.87 per cent from 30.64 per cent a day ago, according to health department data. State Health Minister Satyendar Jain has said that the city is conducting three times more diagnostic tests than the number recommended by the ICMR.
According to the Centre’s new guidelines, asymptomatic patients do not need to undergo a test. Also, contacts of laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients need not get tested unless they have comorbidities or are aged above 60.
The new fatalities include 158 from Kerala and 36 from West Bengal. Of the total deaths reported so far in the country, 1,41,808 are from Maharashtra, 50,832 from Kerala, 38,431 from Karnataka, 36,989 from Tamil Nadu, 25,363 from Delhi, 22,963 from Uttar Pradesh and 20,088 from West Bengal.
A total of 1,47,492 children have lost either their mother or father or both parents due to COVID-19 and other reasons, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said. The child rights body said that the maximum number of children are between the age group of eight to 13 years.
The countrywide vaccination drive against COVID-19 on Sunday completed one year, during which over 156.76 crore vaccine doses were administered. Lauding the vaccination drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it has added great strength to the fight against the pandemic and has resulted in saving lives and protecting livelihoods.
The world’s 10 wealthiest men doubled their fortunes during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic as poverty and inequality soared, a report said on Monday.
The coronavirus has killed at least 5,480,481 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on Saturday.
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