New Delhi: India has reported 9,419 new Covid-19 cases, and 159 deaths in the last 24 hours. India's active caseload currently stands at 94,742.


Also, the active cases currently account for 0.27 percent of total cases, which is the lowest since March 2020. The death toll is 4,73,952. As many as 8,251 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours, which increases the number of total recoveries to 3,40,97,388, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.


Also, the recovery rate stands at 98.36 percent, which is the highest since the onset of the pandemic. 130.39 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive.





The daily positivity rate has been less than two percent for the last 66 days.


More than 140 crore vaccine doses have been provided free of cost to States and Union Territories so far by the Indian government, and through direct state procurement category. Over 19 crore unutilised Covid-19 vaccines are yet to be administered.


On Monday, two cases of Omicron, the new Covid-19 variant, were reported in Mumbai, which takes India’s total tally of the new variant to 23, as per reports. The first two cases were reported in Karnataka. This was followed by one case in Gujarat, and another in Maharashtra. Seven cases of the Omicron variant were reported in Maharashtra’s Pune district on Sunday, six of whom belonged to the same family.


The first case of Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Maharashtra, a 33-year-old mechanical engineer, has tested negative for COVID-19, said Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Commissioner Vijay Suryavanshi, as per reports. 


No cases of infection with Omicron have been reported in Andhra Pradesh, a health official said Wednesday, as per reports.







The Omicron variant has been reported in 57 countries, the World Health Organisation has said.


WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned at a press briefing that the Omicron variant can spread more rapidly than previous variants, Xinhua news agency reported. He also said that certain features of the Omicron variant, including its global spread and large number of mutations, suggest it could change the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.


BioNTech and Pfizer said on Wednesday that a three-shot course of their Covid-19 vaccine was able to neutralise the new Omicron variant in a laboratory test and that they could deliver an upgraded vaccine in March 2022 if needed, as per reports. 


On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration cleared a AstraZeneca antibody drug, and authorised it for people with serious health problems, or allergies.


Top US scientist Anthony Fauci has said that early indicators suggest Omicron is not worse than the previous strains of the virus, and possibly milder, according to reports.


Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization's second-in-command, said that while a lot remained to be learned about the new, heavily mutated variant of Covid-19, preliminary data indicated it did not make people sicker than Delta and other strains, AFP reported.


A top WHO official said on Tuesday that Omicron does not appear to cause more severe disease than other variants, and is "highly unlikely" to fully dodge vaccine protections, AFP reported.


The research head of a laboratory at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa said on Tuesday that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus can partially evade the protection from two doses of Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, as per reports.


On November 26, 2021, WHO named the B.1.1.529 Omicron and classified it as a Variant of Concern (VOC).