As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare India recorded 5,784 new cases in the last 24 hours which is the lowest in 571 days. Maharashtra reported two more fully vaccinated people infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, with both having Dubai travel history, while a man who had returned from South Africa tested positive in Gujarat, taking the tally in the country to 41 on Monday, as per a PTI report.

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Omicron, a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, has caught the attention of the government as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has termed it as a variant of concern. According to Manindra Agarwal, IIT scientist involved in the mathematical projection of trajectory of COVID-19, the third wave of coronavirus could hit the peak by February with cases likely to be reaching up to 1-1.5 lakh a day due to Omicron. However, it will be milder than the second wave, he told to PTI.

“With the new variant, our current forecast is that the country could see the third wave by February but it will be milder than the second wave. So far, we have seen that the severity of Omicron is not like the one seen in the Delta variant,” PTI said in a report quoting Agarwal.

Here are the updates from India:

11.30 AM: Delhi's first patient of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, a 37-year-old man, has been discharged from the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) hospital, officials said on Tuesday, as per PTI. 
The man, a resident of Ranchi, had travelled from Tanzania to Doha and from there, to Delhi on a Qatar Airways flight on December 2. He stayed in Johannesburg in South Africa for a week and had mild symptoms.
The LNJP hospital has been designated for treating patients infected with the new Omicron variant of COVID-19.
A 35-year-old man with travel history to Zimbabwe and South Africa has also tested positive for Omicron, becoming the second patient in the national capital to get infected with the new variant of the coronavirus.

1055 AM:  Ladakh has reported 17 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 21,839 while the active cases in the union territory have gone down to 178, officials said on Tuesday, as per a PTi report. 
The union territory has recorded 216 Covid-related deaths -- 158 in Leh and 58 in Kargil -- since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, they said
Twenty nine patients were cured and discharged from hospitals from Ladakh.
All the fresh cases were reported in Ladakh, they said, adding a 562 sample reports in Ladakh were found negative.
The total number of COVID-19 active cases in Ladakh has gone down to 178 including 164 in Leh and 14 in Kargil district.

10.15 AM: Amid an ongoing uptrend in Uttar Pradesh`s Covid-19 situation, the active cases in the state has increased to 155, as per an IANS report. 

In the past 24 hours, the state registered 19 new cases, while six patients recovered from the infection.
Health officials said active cases were present in 35 districts with majority of them concentrated in Lucknow (29), Gautam Buddha Nagar (24), Ghaziabad (20) and Saharanpur (10).
This means that over 53 per cent of active cases belong to just four districts.
Gautam Buddha Nagar has recorded eight new cases followed by Ghaziabad (3) and Lucknow (2). Saharanpur, Bareilly, Varanasi, Mathura, Deoria and Unnao have reported oneeach.
Health officials advised people to adhere to Covid-19 protocols in individual and social interest.
Meanwhile, the total number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the state reached 17.86 crore which is the highest in the country.
As many as 11.89 crore people are partially vaccinated, while 5.96 crore were fully inoculated. 

9.45 AM: There have been 7,995 recoveries in the last 24 hours increasing the total recoveries to 3,41,38,763. India's active caseload stands at 88,993 lowest in 563 days. The active cases account for less than 1 per cent of the total cases.

9.44 AM: 133.88 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive

9.21 AM: With the addition of 74 new cases of coronavirus, the infection count in Maharashtra's Thane district has reached 5,70,620, an official said on Tuesday, as per PTI.
These cases were reported on Monday, he said.
No fresh fatality was recorded and the death toll stood at 11,593, he said, adding that the COVID-19 mortality rate in Thane is 2.03 per cent.
In neighbouring Palghar district, the COVID-19 case count has gone up to 1,38,826, while the death toll stands at 3,302, another official said.

8.55 AM: Seven COVID-19 patients are currently undergoing treatment in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a health bulletin said on Tuesday, as per a PTI report.
The Union territory's caseload remained unchanged at 7,698 as no fresh infection was registered, it said.
A total of 7,562 people have recovered from the disease so far, including one in the last 24 hours, while 129 patients have succumbed to the infection to date.
The administration has tested over 6.45 lakh samples for COVID-19 thus far, and inoculated over 2.98 lakh people, of whom 2.76 lakh have been fully vaccinated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified a new variant of SARS-CoV-2. It has been named as Omicron. The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behaviour of the virus, WHO has informed.

The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO from South Africa on 24th November 2021. The epidemiological situation in South Africa has been characterized by three distinct peaks in reported cases, the latest of which was predominantly the Delta variant.

It has to be noted that India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakhs on August 23, 40 lakhs on September 5 and 50 lakhs on September 16. It went past 60 lakhs on September 28, 70 lakhs on October 11, crossed 80 lakhs on October 29, 90 lakhs on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crores on June 2.