Take steps to avoid increased mortality: Centre to states on Omicron rise

New Delhi, Dec 30: The Centre has written to 8 states urging them to take immediate measures in the wake of the sudden rise in COVID-19 cases. With the number of Omicron cases also increasing, the Centre said that steps should be taken to avoid increased mortality.

India saw the highest single day rise of 180 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, taking the total tally of such infections in the country to 961, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The 961 cases have been detected across 22 states and UTs so far, and 320 people have recovered or migrated.

Delhi recorded the maximum number of 263 cases followed by Maharashtra at 252, Gujarat 97, Rajasthan 69, Kerala 65 and Telangana 62.

The daily rise in COVID-19 cases crossed 13,000 mark after around 49 days taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,48,22,040, while the active cases increased to 82,402, according to the data updated at 8 am. The death toll has climbed to 4,80,860 with 268 fresh fatalities, the data stated.

A total of 13,091 new coronavirus infections were reported in a span of 24 hours on November 11. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 63 days now.

The active cases comrpise 0.24 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.38 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 5,400 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 PTI inputs)