India's Omicron tally stands at 2,630 cases; R naught value is higher than 2nd wave

New Delhi : India has reported 2,630 cases of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 so far, the Union health ministry data stated. The Omicron tally in the country reached 2,630, with Maharashtra (797) topping the count, followed by Delhi (465), Rajasthan (236) and Kerala (234).

On Wednesday, the Centre confirmed the first Omicron-related death in the country - a 74-year-old man with comorbidities, who succumbed to the virus last week in Rajasthan’s Udaipur.

India is experiencing a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, driven by Omicron, the Centre said on Wednesday. They highlighted that the country’s R naught value that indicates the spread of the infection is 2.69 is higher than the 1.69 recorded during the pandemic’s second wave. R naught value greater than 1 is concerning as it suggests that more people are getting infected from the existing number of infected people.

Mumbai recorded over 15,000 cases — the highest single-day surge witnessed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Covid-19 cases doubled in Delhi, with 10,665 new cases on Wednesday. Kolkata recorded over 9,000 cases in a single day.

India's new COVID-19 cases rose to 90,928 in the past 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Thursday, from 58,097 a day earlier. Daily deaths rose by 325, taking the total to 482,876. With this, the active caseload in the country stands at 2,85,401. The daily positivity rate stands at 6.43 percent.

The ministry further informed that 68.53 crore Covid-19 tests have been conducted in the country so far with the administration of 148.67 crore vaccine doses under the nationwide vaccination drive.

According to the ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava, a spike in the number of COVID cases is being witnessed and "the Omicron variant is the predominant circulating strain".

He also stressed that mass gatherings need to be avoided to lower the speed of the infection spread.