COVID-19: India reports 8,306 new cases, 211 deaths in 24 hours amid Omicron scare

The Union Health Ministry announced on Monday that India has reported 8,306 new COVID-19 cases and 211 deaths in the previous 24 hours. In the last 24 hours, the country has seen a total of 8,834 discharges, bringing the total number of recoveries to 3,40,69,608. The number of active COVID-19 cases in India has dropped to 98,416, the lowest in 552 days, according to government data released on Monday.

The active cases account for 0.28% of total infections, the lowest since March 2020, according to the ministry, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was 98.35%, the highest since March 2020. For 46 days in a row, the daily increase in new Coronavirus infections has fallen below 20,000, and for 149 days in a row, less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported. The active cases account for 0.33% of total infections, the lowest since March 2020, according to the ministry, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was 98.32%, the highest since March 2020. 

So far, the Nationwide Vaccination Drive has administered about 127.93 crore vaccine doses. Following the Omicron crisis in India, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) is considering delivering an additional dosage of the COVID-19 vaccine to a small group of people. According to PTI, which quoted official sources, a meeting of the NTAGI on December 6 will examine delivering a COVID booster shot to susceptible people. The announcement came only days after the Indian SARS-CoV-2 genome consortium (INSACOG) stated that a COVID booster dose for patients at high risk of COVID-19 was under consideration. According to the country's top genome sequencing labs, more scientific data is needed to make the decision. Persons over the age of 40 or those at high risk/exposure should be given priority for booster doses, according to INSACOG.

Omicron variant count in India rises

India has identified 21 Omicron cases in four states and one union territory so far. Two patients in Karnataka tested positive for the Omicron strain of COVID-19 on December 2, marking the first case in India. Two days later, the third and fourth Omicron cases in the country were recorded in Gujarat and Maharashtra, respectively. The new strain was detected for the first time on Monday in the national capital, with another seven cases discovered in Maharashtra. Nine people tested positive for the Omicron strain in Rajasthan's Jaipur, increasing the total number of cases in the country to 21.

As a result, cases of the potentially more contagious COVID virus have been detected in four states and the nation's capital, triggering a new worldwide notice. The nine people who tested positive in Jaipur include four members of a family who had returned from South Africa. New cases in Maharashtra include a woman who travelled from Nigeria with her two daughters and brother, as well as a guy who arrived from Finland in the last week of November, according to officials. The total number of confirmed Omicron cases in Maharashtra has now grown to eight. A marine engineer is being treated at a COVID care centre in Kalyan, Maharashtra, roughly 50 kilometres from the state capital, after arriving in Delhi on November 23 and then flying to Mumbai.

Image: PTI