New Delhi: India clocked more than 2 lakh COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive day with metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru recording high positivity rate and a high burden of active cases.
As of Friday morning, India's cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage exceeds 155.39 Crore with more than 73 lakh vaccine doses administered in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate is currently at 95.20%. 2,64,202 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. 5,753 total Omicron cases have been detected so far; an increase of 4.83% since yesterday. India's active caseload currently stands at 12,72,073 with the weekly positivity rate at 11.83 percent.
Maharashtra on Friday recorded 43,211 new coronavirus cases, down by 3,195 from a day ago, and 19 fresh fatalities linked to the infection. The state also reported 238 new cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, raising their overall count to 1,605. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Friday that the Centre should think about enforcing mandatory COVID-19 vaccination to tide over hesitancy among a segment of people. Mumbai on Friday reported nine fresh deaths linked to COVID-19, the highest single-day fatalities since August 11, 2021, and 11,317 new cases, down 17.60 per cent from the previous day, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
Delhi on Friday reported 24,383 COVID-19 cases and 34 fatalities while the positivity rate surged to 30.64 per cent. Meanwhile 96 COVID-19 cases were reported among inmates from Tihar jail on Friday. The weekend curfew, imposed in the national capital to check Covid spread, kicked in from Friday night putting on hold all non-essential activities for the next 55 hours.
Karnataka on Friday reported 28,723 new cases of COVID-19, including 20,121 in Bengaluru, as it recorded the highest number of tests since the beginning of the pandemic at over two lakh. There were 14 new fatalities with Bengaluru recording seven fatalities today. Karnataka also clocked the highest testing since the beginning of pandemic with 2.21 lakh tests on Friday.
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Fresh Covid-19 cases continued to rise in Tamil Nadu on Friday as it recorded 23,459 cases thereby pushing the caseload to 28,91,959 while the death toll rose to 36,956 with 26 more fatalities. Recoveries too witnessed a sharp increase with 9,026 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours as against 6,235 on Thursday. The state capital, Chennai recorded majority of the new infections.
West Bengal on Friday reported 22,645 new COVID-19 cases, 822 less than the previous day, which pushed the tally to 18,63,697. Twenty-eight more COVID-related deaths in the state highest since the third wave of the pandemic struck in December with the toll climbing to 20,013. Meanwhile, lakhs of pilgrims took their holy dip at Gangasagar here on the occasion of Makar Sankranti on Friday with a section of them giving the go by to the COVID-19 safety protocol.
Odisha on Friday recorded 10,273 new COVID-19 cases, 214 more than the previous day's count, with the tally rising to 11,11,879. The death toll mounted to 8,476 as four more persons succumbed to the disease, the highest single-day COVID fatalities in more than two months. The daily test positivity rate (TPR) rose to 13.57 per cent from 12.41 per cent the previous day.
Gujarat's overall coronavirus tally crossed the 9-lakh mark on Friday with an addition of 10,019 new cases, while two more patients died due to the infection in the state. With 10,019 new COVID-19 cases, the coronavirus tally shot up to 9,06,913.
Punjab's coronavirus tally surged to 6,49,736 on Friday with 7,642 fresh cases, while the death toll climbed to 16,731 as 21 more people succumbed to the viral infection.
In yet another big jump in infections in a single-day, Haryana reported 8,841 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday, while and six more people succumbed to the virus in the state. Haryana now has 41,420 active cases.
Jammu and Kashmir on Friday recorded 2,456 fresh COVID-19 cases that took its tally to 3,52,623, while five fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,557, officials said.
Telangana on Friday reported 2,398 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 7, 05,199 while the death toll rose to 4,052 with three more fatalities. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation recorded the highest number of fresh cases with 1,233 new infections.
Himachal Pradesh Education Minister Govind Singh Thakur and Shimla MP Suresh Kashyap are among 1,975 fresh COVID-19 cases recorded on Friday that took the state's infection tally to 2,40,330, while one more death pushed the toll to 3,872.
Meanwhile, no consensus was reached in DCGI's SEC meeting to give Bharat Biotech and SII full market approval for its vaccines. The issue would be reviewd in the next meeting. Bharat Biotech on Thursday sought regular market approval for its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin from the DGCI. Bharat Biotech vaccines are currently only authorised for emergency use in the country.
(With agency inputs)
