India reports 16,764 new cases in 24 hours; Maha, Kerala, Delhi are states with highest daily cases

New Delhi, Dec 31: India saw a major surge in Covid-19 cases on Thursday as the country reported 16,764 new cases in the last 24 hours, Union Health Ministry data said. The country registered 220 deaths with 7,585 patients recuperating from the infection to take the total number of recoveries in the country to 3,42,66,363.

India's Active caseload currently stands at 91,361 and it accounts for less than 1% of the total cases, currently at 0.26%. The Recovery Rate is currently at 98.36%.

While the Daily positivity rate (1.34%) is less than 2% for the last 88 days, the Weekly Positivity Rate (0.89%) has remained less than 1% for the last 47 days.

With the administration of 66,65,290 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 144.54 Cr (1,44,54,16,714) as per provisional reports till 7 am today.

The last 24 hours saw a total of 12,50,837 tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 67.78 Cr (67,78,78,255) cumulative tests.

States with Highest Daily Cases

In a major spike, Maharashtra on Thursday reported 5,368 new coronavirus infections and 198 cases of the Omicron variant, the state health department said.

The day before, the state had recorded 3,900 new COVID-19 cases. The deaths of 22 coronavirus patients were reported on Thursday.

One of them, a 52-year-old man with a travel history to Nigeria who died of a heart attack on December 28, tested positive for Omicron on Thursday. But his death had nothing to do with the infection, the health bulletin said. The patient had been admitted to the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's Yashwantrao Chavan Hospital. He also had diabetes for the last 13 years, it said.

The caseload of COVID-19 cases in the state rose to 66,70,754, while the death toll reached 1,41,518. The number of active cases in the state rose to 18,217.

Kerala logged 2,423 new COVID-19 infections and 164 deaths, which took the caseload to 52,32,672 and the fatalities to 47,441 till date.

Of the 164 deaths, 15 were recorded over the last few days and 149 designated as COVID-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court.

With 2,879 more people recovering from the virus since Wednesday, the total recoveries reached 51,76,535 and the active cases dropped to 19,835, an official press release said.

Delhi on Thursday recorded 1,313 fresh Covid cases, the highest single-day spike since May 26, as the positivity rate mounted to 1.73 per cent, with Health Minister Satyendar Jain cautioning that the new coronavirus variant Omicron is gradually spreading in the community.

The daily case count breached the 1,000-mark after a gap of seven months. On May 28, the city had logged 1,141 cases. On Wednesday, 923 cases were recorded with a positivity rate of 1.29 per cent, as per officials figures. The positivity rate had breached the one per cent-mark after a gap of seven months.

Kolkata's tally of new COVID-19 infections more than doubled in 24 hours as the metropolis reported 1,090 cases on Thursday, as per the state Health Department. The city reported 540 new cases on Wednesday, it said.

West Bengal registered more than 2,000 cases after nearly six months as the state reported 2,128 new infections.

It was nearly double the cases reported on Wednesday when 1,089 infections were detected, and more than four times.