India reported 8,439 fresh Covid cases in the past 24 hours pushing the tally to 3,40,89,137, the Ministry of Health and Family welfare said on Wednesday morning, while several airports are on high alert as many passengers returning from 11 countries test positive.
With an addition of 195 new fatalities on Tuesday, the total death toll has risen to 4,73,952 in the country. India's active caseload presently stands at 93,733, which is lowest in the last 555 days though the active cases constitute 0.27 per cent of the country's total, which is lowest since March 2020.
As 9,525 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, the country's recovery rate stands at 98.36 per cent, the highest since March 2020.
Also, in the same period as many as 12,13,130 tests were conducted taking the cumulative tests so far to over 65.06 crore.
Meanwhile, the weekly positivity rate at 0.76 per cent has remained less than 1 per cent for the last 24 days now.
The daily positivity rate stands at 0.70 per cent, which has also remained below 2 per cent for last 65 days and less than 3 per cent for 100 consecutive days now.
With the administration of 73,62,000 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, the Covid inoculation coverage has reached 129.54 crore. This has been achieved through 1,35,05,139 in sessions.
More than 19.19 crore balance and unutilised Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states and Union Territories to be administered, according to the health ministry.
AP airports on alert
As Omicron scare gripped Andhra Pradesh's Srikakulam district, authorities have sent samples of a man who recently returned from South Africa and tested positive for Covid-19 for genome sequencing.
The man was under home isolation in Srikakulam town and his samples were sent to Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad for genome sequencing.
Srikakulam district collector Srikesh Lathkar said the genome sequencing report was awaited. He said it was only after receipt of the report that it can be confirmed if he was infected by Omicron or not. The collector said people need not panic as all necessary steps were taken to tackle the case.
The man hailing from Santabommali in Srikakulam district returned from South Africa on November 23 and had tested negative after a Covid test was done at the airport. However, he later developed fever and on December 5 got another test done at a local Primary Health Centre which turned out to be positive.
As the word spread, fear gripped the area in view of reports about few Omicron cases being reported in other parts of the country among the passengers who returned from 'at risk' countries, including South Africa.
About 30 passengers from the Visakhapatnam region returned last week and their health was being monitored by the state medical and health department. The health department has also deployed medical teams at all airports in the state to monitor and screen the travellers.
