On Wednesday, India reported its first COVID-19 death linked to the highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus that is fast becoming the dominant strain across the world. The death took place in the western state of Rajasthan according a Reuters report that cited a union health ministry source.

India reported 243 new omicron cases over the past 24 hours, taking the total number of omicron cases in the country to 2,135. Among these, 848 people have recovered while the rest are still recovering.

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With regard to the distribution of omicron cases across the country, Maharashtra and Delhi are the worst-hit areas, with 653 and 464 cases respectively. Kerala stands third with 185 omicron cases, and Rajasthan, where the first omicron death has been recorded, has 174 cases. Gujarat and Tamil Nadu follow close behind with 154 and 121 omicron cases respectively.

The union health ministry on Wednesday morning said that omicron had thus far spread to 24 states and Union Territories (UTs). However, several states and UTs, such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, and Manipur, among others, have omicron case counts in single digits.

India has reported a 6.3-fold increase in COVID-19 cases over the past 8 days, and the health ministry has said that the case positivity rate has gone up from 0.79 percent on December 29 to 5.03 percent on January 5.

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In view of the spike in daily new infections, several states have issued guidelines and imposed restrictions to curb the spread of the virus to the extent possible.

The surge in COVID-19 cases in India coincides with a global surge in COVID-19 cases. On January 4, 25.2 lakh COVID-19 cases were reported across the world, the highest ever since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. A majority of these cases, approximately 65 percent, were from the USA, UK, France, Italy, and Spain.