Omicron count soars to 1,431 in India; Maharashtra, Delhi top list with 800 cases combined

Omicron strain of COVID-19, the WHO-acclaimed 'variant of concern', continues to grapple the country as case count climbed to 1,431. While Maharashtra has reported the highest number of 454, Delhi's Omicron count crossed over 350. On January 1, 2022, the Ministry of Health stated that 488 out of 1,431 patients diagnosed with the 'highly transmissible' have recuperated from the infection. 

Tamil Nadu reported 118 Omicron infections and Gujarat has reported 115 cases of the new COVID-19 variant. The states are followed by Kerala at 109, Rajasthan at 69, Telangana at 62, Haryana at 37, Karnataka at 34, Andhra Pradesh at 17, West Bengal at 17, Odisha at 14, Madhya Pradesh at 9, Uttar Pradesh at 8, Uttarakhand at 4, Chandigarh at 3, Jammu and Kashmir at 3, Andaman Nicobar Islands at 2, Goa at 1, Himachal Pradesh at 1, Ladakh at 1, Manipur at 1 and Punjab at 1. 

Notably, the total recoveries from the latest strain of SARS-CoV-2 stands at 488. 

Omicron was first detected on November 11, 2021, in South Africa, then in Botswana and Hong Kong, before it rippled across more than 110 countries, as at last weekend. India's first Omicron case was detected on December 2 and in a mere span of 28 days, it has crossed the 1,400-mark.The cases have been detected across 23 states and Union Territories so far. 

COVID-19 tally in India

India has reported fresh 22,775 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours taking the country's Coronavirus tally to 3,42,75,312. 

Meanwhile, a total of 8,949 recoveries have also been reported in the last 24 hours and the active COVID-19 case load stands at 1,04,781. 

The recovery rate currently stands at 98.36%, the weekly positivity rate at 1.10 %, above 1% after 47 days. Also, the daily positivity rate remains at 2.05%, which is more than 2% after 88 days on record. 

The Ministry stated that 145.16 cr vaccine doses have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive. 

Amid the sudden surge in the infection across the country, states and UTs have imposed restrictions. Official sources on Friday, December 31, confirmed that Omicron has already started replacing Delta as the dominant variant in India.