With 7,774 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 3,46,90,510, while the number of active cases declined to 92,281, lowest in 560 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The death count mounted to 4,75,434 with the addition of 306 new fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 45 days now.
The number of active cases has decreased to 92,281, comprising 0.27 per cent of the total infections, the lowest in 560 days, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.36 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the Health Ministry said.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.65 per cent. It has been less than two per cent for the last 69 days. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 0.70 per cent. It has been below one per cent for the last 28 days, according to the Health Ministry.
Here are the Highlights on Coronavirus cases in India:
The Delta variant, first identified in India earlier this year, is responsible for most of the world's coronavirus infections.
But South Africa's discovery of Omicron -- which has a large number of mutations -- last month prompted countries around the world to impose travel bans on southern African countries and reintroduce domestic restrictions to slow its spread.
The WHO said Omicron had spread to 63 countries as of December 9. Faster transmission was noted in South Africa, where Delta is less prevalent, and in Britain, where Delta is the dominant strain.
Maharashtra reported 704 new coronavirus positive cases on Sunday, taking its infection tally to 66,43,883, while the death of 16 patients pushed the toll to 1,41,259, the state health department said.
A total of 669 patients were discharged during the day, which raised the state's overall recovery count to 64,92,504. There are 6,441 active cases in the state at present.
The patient in Kerala's Ernakulam returned from UK via Abu Dhabi and tested positive on December 8. His wife and mother have also tested positive and all three have been isolated. All 149 passengers in the flight have been identified and informed, the authorities in Kerala have said.
At a time when fresh details and concerns are emerging every day about Omicron, the Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR) Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) at Assam's Dibrugarh has come up with a testing kit that can detect the new Covid variant in just two hours.
This may be a big relief for the travellers who have been struggling due to the increased wait time for test reports at the airports after fresh restrictions were brought in place to check the spread of the new variant.
The ICMR Dibrugarh team was working on this kit since November 24.
Odisha's COVID-19 caseload rose to 10,51,574 after 160 more people including 20 children, tested positive for the infection while one fresh fatality pushed the death count to 8,434, a health department official said.
At a time when fresh details and concerns are emerging every day about Omicron, Indian Council of Medical Research's Regional Medical Research Centre at Assam's Dibrugarh has come up with a testing kit that can detect new Covid variant in two hours.
The number of Omicron patients in India ticked up to 35 as two more cases were detected -- one in Chandigarh and another in Andhra Pradesh. For both states, these were the first cases
Preliminary evidence on Omicron suggests "higher transmissibility", WHO Regional Director for South East Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal told NDTV today, adding that "regardless of the change in severity, increase in cases alone may pose overwhelming demand.
At least 10 students and a teacher tested positive for COVID-19 at a school in Karnataka's Chikkamagaluru district following which the school building was sealed and declared a containment zone.
Omicron, a new Covid variant said to be "highly transmissible", has spread to at least 59 countries.
Less than half of the African continent is amenable to mandatory vaccinations for COVID-19, according to a study by a group of scientists, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal, PLOS One.