India reported 194,720 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the most since late May, health ministry data showed. The number of new cases was 15.86% more than Tuesday’s count.
The country has so far reported 3,60,70,510 Covid cases in total, since the first caser recorded in January 2020.
Meanwhile, 442 persons have died of Coronavirus in the past 24 hours taking the nationwide toll to 4,84,655.
As many as 60,405 people recovered from the disease on Wednesday, taking the total to 3,46,30,536. The recovery rate stood at 96.01%, Scroll.in reported.
Cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus rose to 4,868 from Tuesday’s tally of 4,461 infections. The new strain is now present in all 28 states.
The most number of Omicron cases have been reported from Maharashtra (1,281) followed by Rajasthan (645) and Delhi (546). A total of 1,805 people has recovered or have been discharged from hospitals after having tested negative for the variant.
Omicron is taking over the Delta variant of the virus and becoming the dominant strain around the world, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the Covid-19 technical lead at the World Health Organization.
The World Health Organization said that health experts may have to update existing vaccines to target emerging variants like Omicron, The Guardian reported. The global health body warned that repeating booster doses of the same vaccine may not be a feasible strategy to combat the virus.
India on Monday began administering precautionary third doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to healthcare and frontline workers, and senior citizens with co-morbidities.
Meanwhile, 153.80 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the country since the vaccination drive began on January 16.