India reported 7,992 fresh COVID-19 cases and 393 deaths in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As per the COVID bulletin, India's active caseload currently stands at 93,277, the lowest in 559 days. The active caseload accounts for less than one per cent of total cases and is currently at 0.27 per cent, the lowest since March 2020.
With 9,265 new recoveries reported across the country in the last 24 hours, the total recoveries mounted to 3,41,14,331. The recovery rate is at 98.36 per cent, the highest since March 2020. With the addition of new fatalities, the death count mounted to 4,75,128.
The daily positivity rate at 0.64 per cent remained less than two per cent for the last 68 days. The weekly positivity rate is 0.71 per cent and remained below one per cent for last 27 days.
Delhi logged its second case of Omicron as a traveller who returned from Zimbabwe tested positive. With the latest infection, India has so far logged 33 cases of the new variant that has sparked fresh worry worldwide. In Maharashtra, a three-year-old was among seven new patients confirmed by the state government on Friday.
Here are the Highlights on Coronavirus cases in India:
The Meenakshi Amman Temple administration on Saturday said that only people fully vaccinated against Covid will be allowed to enter the temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu from December 13.
This comes after the Madurai administration banned non-vaccinated people from entering public places.
The national capital recorded 52 fresh Covid cases today, along with zero deaths, with a positivity rate of 0.09 per cent, according to Health Ministry data.
The total number of cases reported in Delhi so far stood at 14,41,662. Over 14.16 lakh patients have recovered from the infection.
The death count due to the coronavirus infection in Delhi remained at 25,100. Two deaths due to the coronavirus infection have been recorded in December so far.
Bangladesh has detected its first cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, said the country's Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday.
The Omicron variant was detected in two female cricketers of the Bangladesh Cricket Team, the health minister said, adding the cricketers returned to the country recently from Zimbabwe, Xinhua reported.
Four crew members of a merchant navy ship, who had tested positive for coronavirus after they arrived in Goa from South Africa, have tested negative for the Omicron variant while another sample has been sent for re-testing to Pune in Maharashtra, Goa health department officials said on Saturday.
The five crew members, including two from Russia, had arrived from Cape Town. They had tested positive for coronavirus earlier this month, following which their samples were sent for genomic sequencing to a laboratory in Pune as they had travelled from a high-risk country.
The active cases stand at 38,583.
At least 1,349 people have travelled from foreign countries to Maharashtra's Raigad in the last eight days, causing the district health department to keep watch on them in light of the emergence of the Omicron variant, an official said on Saturday.
While the COVID-19 test reports of these travellers have come out negative, they have been advised to remain under home quarantine, district health officer Dr Sudhakar More said.
The airport authority has been regularly sharing the details of passengers with the local administration for monitoring purposes, the official added.
A one-and-a-half-year-old girl, who had tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus in a Pune district of Maharashtra recently, has been discharged from hospital after recovering from the infection, while a three-year-old boy, who was also found infected with the new strain in the area, is asymptomatic and keeping well, health officials said on Saturday.
The Centre has advised states and Union Territories (UTs) to emphasize on the district level measures for containment of COVID-19 clusters as 27 districts across 10 states and UTs have been reporting high positivity rates in the past two weeks.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in his letter to the chief secretaries and administrators of the states and UTs also emphasized the strategic containment interventions in identified areas, including night curfews, restricting gathering of people, congregation, and curtailing attendees in marriages and funerals.
Witnessing a surge in new COVID-19 cases, Pakistan reported 395 fresh coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, according to National Command and Operation Centre. On Friday, the country recorded 313 fresh coronavirus cases, as per NCOC. A total of 50,859 samples were tested, out of which 395 turned out to be positive.
On a day when the city reported three new cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant, that took Maharashtra's tally to 17 and India's to 32, the police in Mumbai ordered a two-day ban on large gatherings, news agency PTI reported.
Delhi logged its second case of Omicron as a traveller who returned from Zimbabwe tested positive.