COVID-19: India reports 862 cases, lowest tally in 6 months
India recorded its lowest number of daily COVID-19 cases in 196 days, or more than six months, with a three-digit tally of 862 on Tuesday. The total number of active cases has also dropped below 23,000, as per data from the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry. The number of cases reported on Monday was 1,334, which was the lowest recorded in 188 days.
Why does this story matter?
Nearly 65 lakh people died worldwide as a result of several deadly waves of COVID-19, which were initially recorded in November 2019 and quickly put everything on halt. However, some studies claim 94 lakh more people (compared to the reported global total) died between January 2020 and December 2021. Notably, 228 nations have reported more than 63cr confirmed cases of the virus so far.
Number of active cases in the country stands at 22,549
Current recovery rate at 98.76%
The total number of confirmed cases in India so far stands at 4,46,44,938, while the number of deaths reported in the country on Tuesday climbed to 5,28,980 since the beginning of the pandemic. The recovery rate currently is 98.76%, with 4,40,93,409 patients having recuperated so far. In the last 24 hours, 63,786 samples were tested for COVID-19.
Many youngsters yet to get second dose
In India, the COVID-19 case fatality rate currently stands at 1.18%. Meanwhile, India administered over 219.56cr vaccine doses as of Tuesday morning. In the age group of 12-14 years, 4.12cr children have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 3.23 crore people have gotten the second dose as well. In the 15-18 years group, these numbers stand at over 6.2cr and 5.33cr, respectively.
Government on toes as Omicron sub-variants detected
On the other hand, the emergence of new Omicron sub-variants in India has alerted the government. While the number of coronavirus infection cases is on the decline, at least five new sub-variants of the Omicron have been reported from different states of the country so far. India's first case of the Omicron sub-variant BQ.1 of coronavirus—considered to be dangerous—was reported from Pune recently.
