India reports 22,775 new Covid cases with 406 deaths

New Delhi, Jan 1: India saw a spike in daily Covid-19 cases as it registered 22,775 new cases with 406 deaths in the country in the last 24 hours, Union Health Ministry data on Saturday said.

With 8,949 people recuperating from the infection, the total number of recovered cases in the country since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 reached 3,42,75,312. The recovery rate is currently at 98.32%.

India's active Caseloadis is presently at 1,04,781 and it constitutes 0.30% of the country's total Positive Cases.

While the Daily positivity rate is at 2.05%, the Weekly Positivity Rate is at 1.10%. India currently has 1,431 Omicron variant of Covid-19 cases and 488 have recovered from the new variant.

With the administration of 58,11,487 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded145.16 Cr (1,45,16,24,150) as per provisional reports till 7 am today.

In the last 24 hours, a total of 11,10,855 samples were collected across the country. India has so far conducted over 67.89 Cr (67,89,89,110) cumulative tests.

Maharashtra recorded the highest number of daily cases in the country on Friday as 8,067 new coronavirus cases were registered. The state, which has witnessed a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases in the last ten days of 2021, also recorded four new Omicron variant infections. The COVID-19 case tally of Maharashtra rose to 66,78,821 on the last day of the year.

Meanwhile, the country is set to begin vaccination of the children of 15-18 age group from January 3. The online registration at CoWin portal to get jabs will commence from Saturday, the first day of 2022.

The vaccine option against Covid-119 for the children would be Covaxin only, according to recent guidelines issued by the Union health ministry. The onsite registration will begin on January 3.