Covid-19 fourth wave threat: India logs 16,678 new cases, 42 deaths in last 24 hours

New Delhi: India recorded 16,678 new Covid-19 cases, 42 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll to 5,25,428, according to the data released by the Ministry of Health on Monday (July 11, 2022).

The active cases stand at 1,30,713. The country also reported 14,629 recoveries in a day. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,29,83,162, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.20 per cent.

The active cases comprise 0.30 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.50 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 3,662 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious omicron mutant that's worrying scientists as it gains ground in India and pops up in numerous other countries, including the United States. Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection. "It's still really early on for us to draw too many conclusions," said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "But it does look like, especially in India, the rates of transmission are showing kind of that exponential increase."

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.22 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 4.08 per cent, according to the ministry The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,29,68,533, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.20 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered under the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 198.88 crore on Monday at 8 am.