COVID-19: India reports 2,568 new cases, 20 more deaths
India on Tuesday reported over 2,500 new COVID-19 cases, a decline of around 600 cases from the previous day. The country's active caseload currently stands at 19,137, which accounts for 0.04% of the total cases recorded so far. In the past 24 hours, a total of 2,568 new cases and 20 COVID-19-related fatalities were recorded. Meanwhile, the country's recovery rate stood at 98.74%.
Why does this story matter?
India on Tuesday reported fewer COVID-19 cases than the day before. Similarly, the active caseload and daily positivity rate have also recorded a decline on Tuesday. This comes after India has been witnessing a gradual increase in cases over the past few days. Meanwhile, India's genome sequencing consortium INSACOG has confirmed the presence of Omicron's sub-variant, XE, in the country.
Nearly 3K patients discharged
According to data shared by the Union Health Ministry, India reported a total of 4,30,84,913 COVID-19 cases until Tuesday morning, while the cumulative death count reached 5,23,889. With 2,911 fresh discharges, the number of total recoveries in the country climbed to 4,25,41,887. On the other hand, the daily and weekly positivity rates were recorded at 0.61% and 0.71%, respectively.
Delhi adds most new cases
Maharashtra—one of the worst-hit states so far—recorded 92 new cases and 70 more recoveries on Monday. Karnataka added 111 new cases and 76 recoveries, while Tamil Nadu witnessed 40 new cases and 49 discharges. On the other hand, Delhi reported 1,076 new cases and 1,329 discharges. Meanwhile, Kerala reportedly recorded 296 new COVID-19 cases and 302 recoveries on Monday.
India's third wave peaked in January
Notably, India witnessed a massive spurt in coronavirus cases in December-end and at the beginning of January—dubbed India's third wave—due to the highly contagious Omicron variant. The third wave peaked on January 21, 2022, when 3.47 lakh single-day cases were recorded. However, this was lower compared to the second wave, when 4.14 lakh single-day infections were recorded at a peak on May 7, 2021.
Over 189.3 crore vaccine doses administered
As of Tuesday morning, India has administered over 189.3 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses. Overall, over 86.2 crore people have been fully vaccinated, while more than 100.4 crore people have received at least one dose. On Tuesday alone, India administered over 3.5 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses till 4:00 pm, including over 2.1 lakh second doses and more than 65,000 first doses, according to Co-WIN.
2.73 crore 'precautionary' doses administered
Moreover, India has administered over 2.73 crore "precautionary" doses since January 10. On Tuesday, over 40,000 people in the age group of 18-59 years and nearly 36,000 people aged above 60 years were given the precautionary dose till 4:00 pm.
INSACOG confirms India's first case of Omicron XE variant
Meanwhile, India's genome sequencing consortium INSACOG has confirmed the presence of Omicron's subvariant, XE, in the country. However, INSACOG has not named the state which has reported this subvariant. This comes after officials had earlier rejected the claim of Maharashtra that XE was detected in the state. Notably, XE is said to be 10% more transmissible than the currently dominant BA.2 strain of Omicron.
