India reports 358 Omicron cases, highest since onset of new variant

New Delhi : India witnessed sharpest one-day rise in Omicron cases with the overall caseload surging to 358 in the country. The highly transmissible variant has now been detected in 17 states with Maharashtra and Delhi leading the charts followed by Telangana.

The distribution of cases across states is as follows: Maharashtra leads the tally with 88 cases, not far behind is Delhi with 67 cases, 38 in Telangana, 34 in Tamil Nadu, 31 in Karnataka, 30 in Gujarat, 27 in Kerala, 22 in Rajasthan, 4 in Haryana, 4 in Odisha, 3 in Jammu and Kashmir, 3 in West Bengal, 2 in Andhra Pradesh, 2 in Uttar Pradesh and one each in Uttarakhand, Ladakh and Chandigarh.

Most of the cases reported in the country have remained asymptomatic but are under observation to detect any adverse symptoms. Half of the total cases in Maharashtra-42 have now been discharged, 23 patients in Delhi, 15 in Karnataka and 19 patients in Rajasthan have recovered from the virus taking the total number of recoveries from the variant to 114.

India reported 6,650 new cases in the last 24 hours which takes the active caseload to 77,516 cases. 7,051 recoveries in the last 24 hours take recovery rate to 98.40 per cent. Cumulative vaccine coverage has crossed 140.31 Crore in the country with the administration of 57,44,652 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours.

Prime Minister on Thursday evening chaired a high-level meeting with officials amidst rising COVID cases in the country. He directed officials to be vigilant, increase the pace of vaccination in states with low vaccination coverage, strengthen health infrastructure to tackle a rise in cases and work in close coordination with states to help them impose strict COVID-19 health prevention measures. The centre also directed states to place fresh curbs ahead of the festive season to prevent its spread.

While Delhi, Tamil Nadu along with many other states have already issued restrictive guidelines for the upcoming festive celebrations, Maharashtra government will be issuing detailed guidelines on Friday to prevent huge gatherings that can lead to a spike in COVID cases.