India reports 3,17,532 new COVID cases, 491 deaths in last 24 hours

India logged 3,17,532 new coronavirus infections, the highest in 249 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,82,18,773, which includes 9,287 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The active cases rose to 19,24,051, the highest in 234 days, while the death toll climbed to 4,87,693 with 491 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

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There has been a 3.63 per cent increase in omicron cases since Wednesday, the ministry said. Experts said it is not possible to undertake genome sequencing of each and every sample but stressed that the current wave is largely being driven by omicron.

The active cases comprise 5.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.09 per cent, the ministry said.

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An increase of 93,051 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The country had reported 3,11,170 cases in a single day on May 15 last year. India’s COVID-19 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.

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It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 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 on May 4 and three crore on June 23.