India records 620 cases of Omicron in last 24 hrs, country's tally reaches 5,488

|HT|

India recorded 620 cases of Omicron, its highest single-day spike in the cases of the new variant of coronavirus, according to data released by the Union health ministry. With this, the country’s Omicron tall reached 5,488. The health ministry data also showed that 2,162 Omicron patients recovered in the last 24 hours.

Maharashtra continued its top position with 1,367 cases of the Omicron, followed by Rajasthan at 792, Delhi 549, Kerala 486 and Karnataka 479. Since being detected in South Africa in November last year, Omicron has spread very fast across the globe. In India, the first case was detected on December 1, and the number crossed the 5,000-mark in little over a month.

The variant is heavily mutated, with more than 30 mutations reported in its spike protein. Many experts claim that this is the reason why Omicron is more resistant to existing vaccines. Many studies are being conducted across the world to understand the behaviour of the new variant. From changing the type of masks, to developing new vaccines, researchers are finding way to stamp out an outbreak of the highly infectious virus.

A third shot of the vaccine, known as the booster dose, is being advocated to increase the immunity against Omicron. India has also launched a programme to give the additional jab - called precautionary dose - to its eligible population, which includes those above the age of 60 with comorbidities and frontline workers.

India, meanwhile, logged 2,47,417 new coronavirus infections, the highest in 236 days, taking the total tally of Covid-19 cases to 3,63,17,927.

The active cases have increased to 11,17,531, the highest in 216 days, while the death toll has climbed to 4,85,035 with 380 fresh fatalities, the health ministry data updated at 8am showed.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)