India reported over a lakh new cases of COVID-19 yet again in a single day. Its tally of 1,17,100 new cases on Friday has taken the total so far to 3,52,26,386. This includes 3,007 cases of Omicron reported across 27 States and Union Territories, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.
Out of the total Omicron cases reported so far, 1,199 people have recovered or migrated.
Maharashtra recorded the highest number of 876 cases, followed by Delhi at 465, Karnataka 333, Rajasthan 291, Kerala 305 and Gujarat 204.
Active cases increased to 3,71,363, the highest in around 120 days, according to the data updated at 8 a.m. The active cases comprise 1.05% of the total infections.
A total of 85,962 cases have been added to the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate now stands at 7.74%.
A day after calling off its flagship Vibrant Gujarat Summit, the Gujarat government on Friday announced a series of measures to tackle the surging pandemic as the active load in the State reached 18,538. On Friday, the State reported 5396 new cases and one death.
Schools closed
The new measures imposed by the authorities include closing of schools for classes 1 to 9 completely till January 31, and increasing the duration of night curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in all major cities in the State.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel held a review meeting with top Ministers and bureaucrats to take stock of the situation and directed the administration to ramp up testing and containment measures in places where the cases are being reported.
Karnataka logged 8,449 new cases and four deaths on Friday. Bengaluru Urban alone reported 6,812 new cases.
The test positivity rate stands at 4.15%. The cumulative number of Omicron cases reported in the State so far is 333. The State now has 30,113 active patients.
The active case load of COVID-19 tripled in 10 days in Andhra Pradesh. The State reported 840 new cases in the 24 hours ending Friday morning. It was the highest single-day tally since October 3. The single-day test positivity rate also crossed 2% for the first time in the past 103 days. At 2,972 cases, the active cases tally has tripled in the past 10 days
In Telangana, 2,295 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Friday. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation alone accounted for 1,452 of them. Three deaths were also reported on the day.
Odisha maintained a spike in new COVID-19 cases for the fourth consecutive day, the graph shooting up by 42.48% in the past 24 hours. The State logged 2,703 new cases, the biggest single-day tally in the past six months
The surge in cases had prompted the State government to order the closure of offline classes in all colleges and universities from January 10. The ancient Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri will remain closed for devotees from January 10 to 31 on account of many temple staff testing positive in the past few days.
Kerala reported 5,296 new cases on Friday. The test positivity rate has risen to 8.2%. The State also reported 25 new Omicron cases, the cumulative case burden reaching 305.
The State’s active case pool is now seen rising steadily in the past one week and it now has 27,859 patients, of whom 2,434 are being treated for moderate or severe infection in hospitals
There was a 45% increase in new cases (7,348 cases) in the week from December 31 to January 6, in comparison to the previous week, while there was a marginal increase in hospitalisation (5%) and ICU admissions (8%).
Assam reported 1,167 new cases on Friday after 35,127 people were tested in the past 24 hours. Two deaths were also reported. The State’s active case pool is 3,601 at present.
Surge continues in Maharashtra
Maharashtra’s case surge continued apace with the State reporting a staggering 40,925 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, as the active case tally climbed to 1,41,492. Twenty fatalities took the cumulative death toll to 1,41,614.
As per the State Health department, no new infections of the Omicron variant were reported on Friday. The State’s Omicron tally now stands at 876, of whom 435 have been discharged till now.
Mumbai city’s case surge exceeded 20,000 as the city reported a whopping 20,971 cases, taking the city’s active case tally to 91,731.
However, despite the rising cases, Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Chahal ruled out any immediate need for either imposing a lockdown or additional restrictions in the city as the bed occupancy rate, oxygen requirement and number of fatalities were still low.
He said that while during the first and second waves the decision to impose a lockdown was taken on the basis of the case positivity rate, this criterion could not be applied for the third wave.
