Karnataka reported the highest number of cases across the country while the situation somewhat improved in Maharashtra and Delhi, the other two worst-affected States. But Kerala continued to report high numbers and poll-bound Uttar Pradesh is also seeing no improvement in the situation.
India overall added 2.68 lakh new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, raising the tally to 3.67 crore, including 6,041 cases of Omicron which continue to spread fast in almost all the States in the country. The Covid-19 curve appears to be on a downward slope in worst-hit Delhi and Mumbai which still maintain India’s top spots among cities recording the highest number of coronavirus infections.
Karnataka reported 32,793 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday with a test positivity rate of 15 per cent. The Capital Bengaluru alone accounted for 22,284 new infections. The State also reported seven related deaths of which five were from Bengaluru. The total number of active cases in the State is currently at 1,69,850.
Neighboring Kerala recorded 17,755 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday after testing 65,937 samples, taking its Test Positivity Rate (TPR) to 26.92 per cent. The State now has 90,649 active cases. The Covid-19-related toll reached 50,674 after 17 recent deaths and 89 previously undocumented ones were made officials by the health department.
Delhi reported 20,718 fresh Covid-19 cases and 30 deaths on Saturday. The positivity rate is at 30.64 per cent. The national Capital had reported 24,383 fresh Covid-19 cases and 34 deaths on Friday, with a positivity rate of 30.64 percent.
Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday said that it seems the national Capital has reached its peak in Covid-19 infections and the Government will think of easing restrictions when the cases decline to touch 15,000. “We can say that Delhi has reached a peak in terms of cases. Cases have started slowing down. Let’s see when the decline happens,” he told reporters. He reiterated that the hospitalization rate has stabilized in Delhi.
Mumbai also saw a dip in the number of cases but a rise in fatality. On Saturday, Mumbai reported 11 new coronavirus-related deaths, the highest single-day toll since July 29 last year. The city logged 10,661 fresh infections during the last 24 hours as
against 13,000 plus cases on Friday.
Poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Saturday reported 15,795 fresh coronavirus infections that pushed its active caseload to 95,148, while four more fatalities pushed the death toll to 22,953, an official statement issued here said.
Lucknow reported the highest number of fresh cases at 2,769, followed by 1,873 from Gautam Budh Nagar, 1,371 from Ghaziabad and 1,135 from Meerut, among other districts, it said. With the new infections, Uttar Pradesh’s coronavirus tally stands at 18,16,974. The latest deaths were reported from Lucknow, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Mainpuri, the statement said.
Odisha’s Covid-19 caseload mounted to 11,22,735 on Saturday with 10,856 fresh infections, while two more fatalities pushed the death toll to 8,478, the Health Department said in a bulletin. The State also reported 32 new Omicron cases taking the tally of the new strain of coronavirus in Odisha to 202, a health department official said.
Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday recorded 3,251 fresh Covid-19 cases, its highest single-day spike in infections so far this year, taking the virus tally to 3,55,874, while four related deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, officials said. Of the fresh cases, 1,129 were from the Jammu division and 2,122 from the Kashmir division of the Union Territory.
India added 2.68 lakh new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, raising the tally to 3.67 crore, including 6,041 cases of Omicron which continue to spread fast in almost all the States in the country. The Covid-19 curve appears to be on a downward slope in worst-hit Delhi and Mumbai which still maintain India’s top spots among cities recording the highest number of coronavirus infections.
Tamil Nadu registered 23,459 cases and 26 deaths, while West Bengal logged as many as 22,645 cases, along with 28 fatalities.
In Bengal, 77.2 per cent of the samples, that is, 1,200 out of 1,499 samples sent for genome sequencing, have come out positive for the Omicron variant.
Although the State reported a slight dip in cases, Kolkata took a U-turn from its declining trend and logged a marginal spike in the single-day case count with 6,867 Covid-19 infections.
In other parts of the country, the new Omicron variant continues to cause a surge in infections. There were a total of 6,041 Covid-19 cases linked to the Omicron strain, the Union Health Ministry said in its bulletin on Saturday.
Other States that recorded more than 10,000 daily Covid-19 cases are Kerala (16,338), Uttar Pradesh (15,975), Rajasthan (10,307) and Odisha (10,273).
Active cases now comprise 3.85 per cent of the total infections. As a result, the national recovery rate of the infection has decreased to 94.83 per cent. An increase of 1,45,747 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry data.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 16.66 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 12.84 per cent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive has exceeded 156.02 crore, the Ministry said.
As many as 402 people have died of Covid during the past 24-hour period, according to the Health Ministry.