Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi see major spike; India records 1,525 Omicron, 27,553 Covid cases
Densely-populated Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are witnessing a major surge in Covid-19 cases as the country battles the initial phase of third wave that threatens to infect far more people than the previous two phases.
Mumbai registering 8,063 of the fresh infections (27 per cent higher than Saturday), Delhi logged 3,191 cases, and Kolkata recorded around 3,194 cases. India on Sunday reported yet another spike in daily Covid-19 infections with 27,553 fresh cases being logged in the past 24 hours. Infections have sharply risen for a fifth consecutive day.
As many as 22,775 new cases were reported on Saturday. On December 20, 2021, India had reported 5,326 Covid cases. This has sharply jumped to breach 27,000 cases as on January 2, i.e. Sunday.
Up by 21 per cent cases on Sunday, the total caseload is now 3,48,89,132. Omicron too followed the suit with the nationwide tally of the hyper-mutated variant of coronavirus further climbing to 1,525, with Maharashtra topping the charts with 460 cases.
Delhi is the second-most contributor of the highly transmissible Omicron with 351 cases, followed by Gujarat (136), Tamil Nadu (117), and Kerala (109). Major cities like Raigarh and Raipur across the country have witnessed a surge in their Covid count.
A total of 23 States and Union Territories have reported cases of the new variant, namely Telangana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Manipur and Punjab.
Warning that the rise in cases seen globally and India could put “stress on health infrastructure”, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had on Sunday wrote to the States to create additional isolation beds, makeshift hospitals, field hospitals and pediatric care units. The States have been asked to follow up with those in home isolation and gear up their control rooms that would coordinate with people requiring a bed and an ambulance.
India’s total caseload of the Covid-19 infections have surged to 3,48,89,132, with active cases comprising less than 1 per cent (0.35) of the total cases, the Ministry said. The country reported 284 Covid-19 fatalities in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 4,81,770. This pushed the active case tally to 1,22,801, according to data from the Union Health Ministry.
With 9,249 people recovering from the disease in the last 24 hours, total recoveries climbed to 3,42,84,561. The recovery rate currently stands at 98.27 per cent.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra logged 11,877 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, 29 per cent higher than Saturday, with Mumbai registering 8,063 of the fresh infections (27 per cent higher than Saturday). The State saw nine Covid deaths since Saturday.
Maharashtra recorded 50 new cases of the new Omicron variant , most of the cases (38) have been reported from Pune. Mumbai reported one new Omicron case. Maharashtra’s overall Omicron count now stands at 510, including 328 cases from Mumbai.
The State, which has logged the highest overall cases in the country, has 42,024 actives cases, including 29,819 from Mumbai.
Mumbai is one of the major cities besides Delhi that are witnessing a massive surge in coronavirus cases believed to be driven by the Omicron variant.