India records 1,68,063 new Covid-19 cases in a day

India recorded 1,68,063 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking active cases in the country to over 8.21 lakhs. The country saw a total of nearly 1.8 lakh new infections of the pandemic a day ago.

Daily positivity rate at 10.64% and weekly positivity rate at 8.85% also remains high, indicating the country is going through a severe third wave of the pandemic. Active cases stand at 2.29% and recovery rate currently is at 96.36%.

Total Omicron variant cases have also gone up to 4,461 compared to over 4,000 cases a day ago. Maharashtra leads the list with 1,247 cases, followed by Rajasthan (645), Delhi (546), Karnataka (479) and Kerala (350).

Maharashtra, which has a total of over 2.1 lakh Covid-19 active cases, saw a steep fall in new cases of 3,791 reported in the last 24 hours, compared to over 29,000 cases a day ago. In West Bengal, new cases reported in a day were 11,083, compared to over 16,000 cases the day before. New cases in Delhi also have halved to 5,073 new cases from over 12,500 cases a day ago. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which reported over 11,000 cases each a day ago, had 11,432 and 10,546 new cases respectively in the last 24 hours.

Uttar Pradesh reported nearly 8,000 cases compared to 7,400 cases a day ago. Gujarat (4,556 new cases), Rajasthan (5,621), Bihar (4,041), Haryana (4,179), Odisha (4,415) and Punjab (3,036) are also witnessing high number of new Covid-19 infections.

Meanwhile, the Delhi administration has directed closure of all private offices in Delhi, except those which are falling under the exempted category and to follow work from home. Globally, the disease is also fast spreading with currently over 30 crore people infected. The Americas and Europe account for 11 crore each of infections.