Omicron Tally In India Rises To 269 With 16 States, UTs Reporting Cases Of New COVID Strain So Far: Govt

India has recorded 236 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus across 16 states and UTs so far out of which 104 people have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday (23 December).

The omicron variant of Coronavirus, which was first detected in South Africa last month and was declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation (WHO), has spread to over 80 countries around the world including India.

Maharashtra has recorded the maximum 65 cases of the Omicron variant followed by Delhi at 64, Tamil Nadu 35, Telangana 24, Karnataka 19, Rajasthan 21 and Kerala 15.

It should be noted that Tamil Nadu reported 33 new Omicron cases on Wednesday (22 December).

The ministry data also showed that India recorded 7,495 new coronavirus in the last 24 hours, while the active cases increased to 78,291.

The active cases comprise 0.23 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 98.40 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

An increase of 101 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.62 per cent, which has been less than two per cent for last 80 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 0.59 per cent. It has been below one per cent for the last 39 days, according to the ministry.

(With Inputs From PTI)