Covid-19 In India: Daily Cases Numbers See A Dip While Death Number Rises In Last 24 Hours

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 50 continuous days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 153 consecutive days now.

New Delhi: After the Union Health ministry updated on Covid-19 tally, cases reported in the last 24 hours is 8318 bringing the number of active cases declined to 1,07,019, the lowest in 541 days, the number of recoveries is 10,967. The country's tally stands at 3,45,63,749 cases. 

However, PTI reported that the death toll has climbed to 4,67,933 with 465 daily fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 50 continuous days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 153 consecutive days now. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,39,88,797.

The active cases have declined to 1,07,019 comprising 0.31 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.34 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the health ministry said.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.86 per cent. It has been less than 2 per cent for the last 54 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 0.88 per cent. It has been below 1 per cent for the last 13 days, according to the health ministry.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the new variant found in South Africa as a “variant of concern” on Friday after a meeting of an expert panel. The new variant was first reported by South Africa on Thursday, and soon the countries had started imposing travel bans and taking cautionary actions. However, on Friday, some more countries reported the strain, including Hong Kong, Botswana, Belgium, and Israel.

The new variant which is scientifically called B.1.1.529 is also given the greek letter omicron by the panel. Omicron has become a major concern for the countries as it is highly mutated which might make it highly transmissible. There is no data yet to prove if it affects vaccine efficacy or not.

However, Arindam Bagchi, the MEA spokesperson, said in the weekly briefing, “As regards the issue of the South African variant, this is a developing incident. We just saw a report of and briefing by WHO. I don't have any immediate information on the steps we are taking. It is an issue more for our health authorities. This is a very developing story.”

WHO spokesperson, Christian Lindmeier said that early analysis shows multiple mutations but the variant has to undergo a study to get more data on the transmissibility and effect on vaccine efficacy.