India reports 1.68 lakh new Covid-19 cases, 6.4% lower than yesterday

India recorded 1,68,063 new Covid cases today, 6.4 per cent lower than yesterday, which included 4,461 cases of Omicron variant. The country also reported 277 deaths in the last 24 hours due to coronavirus.

According to a release by the ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday morning, the Omicron tally rose to 4,461, with Maharashtra and Rajasthan leading the list at 1,247 and 645 infections.

A total of 1,711 people have recovered or have been discharged from hospitals after having tested negative for the variant.

The daily positivity rate came down to 10.64 per cent today from 13.29 per cent yesterday. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 8.85 per cent. On Monday, the country had recorded 1.79 lakh Covid cases.

The number of active cases at present stands at 8,21,446, which is 2.29 per cent of the total cases. The overall Covid case tally has increased to 3,58,75,790 while the death count rose to 4,84,213 in India.

At least 69,959 recoveries in the last 24 hours took the total number of recoveries to 3,45,70,131. The recovery rate in India is currently at 96.36 per cent.

Also, 152.89 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive, which includes around 10 lakh precaution doses given on the first day of its rollout on Monday.

According to the Government of India, the precaution doses of the Covid vaccine were administered to 5,19,604 healthcare workers, 2,01,205 frontline workers and 2,63,867 senior citizens with comorbidities on the first day of rollout

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.