India's new variant tally rises to 781, Delhi reports maximum cases

India has recorded 781 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus across 21 states and UTs so far out of which 241 people have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

Delhi recorded the maximum number of 238 cases followed by Maharashtra at 167, Gujarat 73, Kerala 65 and Telangana 62.

With 9,195 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,48,08,886, while the active cases increased to 77,002, according to the data updated at 8 am.

However, the recovery of 7,347 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients (since the beginning of the pandemic) to 3,42,51,292. Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.40%, highest since March 2020.

The death toll has climbed to 4,80,592 with 302 fresh fatalities,the data stated.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 62 days now.

The active cases comprise 0.22 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.40 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

An increase of 1,546 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh 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 crore on June 23.

With inputs from PTI