Covid-19 cases cross 2 lakh a day mark

Daily positivity rate is at 13.11% and weekly positivity rate is at 10.80%. As against the 2.47 lakh new infections, 84,825 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours. India did 18.86 lakh tests the previous day to detect the disease. The prime minister is holding a virtual meeting with state chief ministers today evening to assess the situation in the country.

The pandemic is spreading fast in Karnataka with 19,839 new cases and Maharashtra with 18,650 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total active case load in Maharashtra to over 2.43 lakh cases. While West Bengal recorded 14,015 new cases, Delhi had 12,564 new cases. While Tamil Nadu recorded 13,876 new cases, that in Uttar Pradesh was 12,889 new cases. Other states where the disease is fast spreading include Rajasthan (7851), Odisha (7829), Kerala (9991), Gujarat (6488) and Punjab (3546).

Omicron variant cases in the country have also increased to 5,488, with Maharashtra accounting for 1,367 cases, followed by Rajasthan with 792 cases, Delhi (549 cases) and Kerala (486 cases).

The government data also says the country did over 76 lakh vaccinations in the last 24 hours, administering a total of 154 crore vaccine doses.

Globally, during the week January 3-9, the new weekly Covid-19 cases increased markedly by 55%, while the new weekly deaths remained similar to those reported during the previous week. This corresponds to over 15 million new cases and over 43,000 new deaths. As of January 9, over 304 million confirmed cases and over 5.4 million deaths have been reported, said the World Health Organisation.