COVID-19: India records 16,051 new cases; 206 more deaths
India on Monday reported over 16,000 new COVID-19 cases, a decline of nearly 4,000 cases from the previous day. The active caseload in the country currently stands at 2,02,131, which accounts for 0.47% of the total cases. In the past 24 hours, 16,051 new cases and 206 fatalities were reported. Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 recovery rate has reached 98.33%.
Why does this story matter?
India on Monday reported fewer COVID-19 cases than the day before. Notably, this is the fourth consecutive week when India witnessed a sharp decline in COVID-19 infections. Meanwhile, the virus-related deaths have also been reducing in the past few weeks. This comes after India witnessed a massive spurt in cases due to the highly contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus.
Nearly 38,000 patients discharged
According to the Union Health Ministry, India reported a total of 4,28,38,524 COVID-19 cases till Monday morning, while the death toll reached 5,12,109. With 37,901 fresh discharges, the number of total recoveries climbed to 4,21,24,284. Meanwhile, the daily positivity rate witnessed a slight increase from the previous day and currently stands at 1.93%. Separately, the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.12%.
Kerala adds most new cases
Maharashtra reported 1,437 new COVID-19 cases along with 3,375 more recoveries. Kerala, the second worst-hit state after Maharashtra, reported 5,427 new cases and 14,334 discharges. The third worst-hit Karnataka added 1,001 fresh cases and 1,780 recoveries. Tamil Nadu, the fourth worst-hit state, witnessed 949 new cases and 3,561 discharges. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh reported 335 new cases and 936 recoveries.
India's second wave peaked on May 7
India's second wave peaked on May 7, 2021, when 4.14 lakh single-day cases were reported, over four times the number of cases reported during the first wave in mid-September 2020. Although infections declined after the second wave peaked, India crossed the three-crore mark on June 23. The country crossed the one-crore mark on December 19, 2020, and the two-crore mark on May 4, 2021.
Over 175 crore vaccine doses administered
Till 9:30 am on Monday, India administered over 175.3 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses. Overall, more than 77.3 crore people have been fully vaccinated, while over 96.2 crore people have received one dose. On Monday alone, India administered over 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses till 9:30 am, including over 40,000 second doses and over 6,000 first doses, according to Co-WIN.
Nearly 1.8 crore 'precautionary' doses administered
Meanwhile, India has administered nearly 1.8 crore "precautionary" doses since January 10. On Monday, over 1,800 healthcare/frontline workers and over 3,300 elderly people were given the precautionary dose till 9:30 am.
WHO warns against Omicron's subvariant BA.2
At a time when COVID-19 cases related to the Omicron variant have been declining across the globe, the World Health Organization has raised concern about Omicron's subvariant BA.2. "The virus is evolving, and Omicron has several sub-lineages that we are tracking. We have BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3," Maria Van Kerkhove, Covid-19 technical lead at the WHO, said.
