India records 1,79,723 new COVID-19 cases, omicron tally at 4,033

India recorded 1,79,723 new COVID-19 cases and 146 deaths in the last 24 hours, data from the Union Ministry of Health confirmed on Monday. India’s total infection tally has now reached 3,57,07,727, with the death toll pushed to 4,83,936. 

The ministry also confirmed 4,033 cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus have so far been detected across the country, of which 1,552 have either recovered or migrated. 

Maharastra has recorded the highest number of omicron cases, 1,216, among the 27 states and Union Territories (UTs) where the new ‘variant of concern’ has been detected. 

Active cases have increased by 1,33,008 to 7,23,619. They comprise 2,03% of the total caseload. 

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46,569 patients recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,45,00,172. The national recovery rate stands at 96.62%. The national mortality rate currently stands at 1.36%. 

Data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) confirmed a total of 69,15,75,352 samples have been tested for COVID-19 across the country. 13,52,717 of those samples were tested in the last 24 hours. 

The daily positivity rate has jumped up to 13.29%, while the weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 7.92%. 

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India’s cumulative vaccination tally has now reached 1,51,94,05,951 after 29,60,975 doses were administered in the last 24 hours across the country. The country’s mass vaccination campaign was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16 last year. 

India’s COVID-19 infection tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020; 30 lakh on August 23; 40 lakh on September 5; and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28; 70 lakh on October 11; 80 lakh on October 29; 90 lakh on November 20; and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore infections on May 4 last year and three crore on June 23.