India registers 2,71,202 new Covid-19 cases, 314 deaths; Omicron tally at 7,743

New Delhi, Jan 16: India added 2,71,202 new coronavirus infections, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,71,22,164, including 7,743 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

The country saw 1,702 new cases of Omicron variant, the highest in a single day so far, and an increase of 28.17 per cent since Saturday.

According to experts, it is not possible to undertake genome sequencing of each and every sample, but stressed that this wave is largely being driven by Omicron.

The active cases stand at 15,50,377. An increase of 1,32,557 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The country also recorded 1,38,331 recoveries today, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,50,85,721.

The active cases comprises 4.18 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 94.51 per cent, the ministry said.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 16.28 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 13.69 per cent, according to the ministry.

A total of 70,24,48,838 samples were tested up to January 15 of which 16,65,404 samples were tested on January 15, said the Ministry of Health.