Omicron wave: New Covid-19 cases double to over 90,000 a day

With 29 districts across 11 states in the country having reached a Covid-19 weekly positivity rate of above 10%, new Covid cases in the country have nearly doubled in the last 24 hours from over 58,000 cases a day ago to 90,928 new cases.

Total Omicron cases in the country also have increased to 2,630, with 797 cases in Maharashtra and 465 cases in Delhi. Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Karnataka now have over 200 infected with the Omicron variant.

Government data shows the disease is fast spreading in the North East, Maharashtra, Goa, Delhi, West Bengal, Haryana and Punjab. Total active caseload has also increased to 2,85,401 and daily positivity rate is now at a very high 6.43%, while weekly positivity rate is at 3.47%. Positivity rate is the percentage of people who test positive out of all those who have been tested for the coronavirus.

Lahul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh has the highest weekly positivity rate (between December 29 and January 4) with 66.67%. The weekly positivity rate in Kolkata is 44.50% and that in Howrah in West Bengal has reached 30.14%. The health ministry data says 29 districts across 11 states in the country have a positivity rate above 10%. Delhi North West district has a positivity rate of 10.71%, while that in Mumbai suburban region is 18.40%, Mumbai is 17.21%, Thane is 12.57%, and Raigad is 11.10%.

Nicobar in Andaman and Nocobar Islands, Lohit and Namasi districts in Arunachal Pradesh, North Goa (15.98%) and South Goa (12.96%) in Goa, Faridabad (12.03%) and Gurugram (11.37%) in Haryana, Koderma in Jharkhand (17.32%), eight districts in Mizoram, Patiala in Punjab (13.09%) also have positivity rate above 10%.