Covid Cases in India: 128.76 crore vaccine doses have been administered till date. (File)
India recorded a daily spike of 6,822 Covid cases on Tuesday, taking the total active caseload of cases to 95,014 -- the lowest in 554 days. India's active cases account for less than 1% of total cases and are currently at 0.27% which is the lowest since March 2020.
The overall recovery rate currently stands at 98.36 per cent, highest since March 2020 as India logged 10,004 recoveries in the past 24 hours taking the total number of recoveries to 3,40,79,612.
India's Omicron tally is steadily rising with fresh cases of the worrisome variant in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Delhi. Seven in Maharashtra, nine in Jaipur and a man in Delhi were found positive with the variant, taking the total count in the country to 21.
A total of 128.76 crore vaccine doses have been administered till now in India under Nationwide Vaccination Drive. The daily positivity was recorded at 0.94 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was 0.78 per cent.
Here are the Highlights on Coronavirus cases in India:
Coronavirus Live Updates: Covid positive travellers from 'at-risk' countries rises to 17 in MumbaiThe number of COVID-19 positive travellers who have returned to Mumbai from 'at-risk' countries climbed to 17 on Tuesday with the addition of one more patient to the list, the city civic body said.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said these 17 foreign returnees to the city - 13 males and four females - have tested positive for COVID-19 and have been hospitalized.
In a statement, the civic body said so far nine close contacts of these patients have also tested positive for coronavirus.
COVID-19 News: 'Omicron' More Transmissible Than Delta Variant, Says UK PMEarly signs indicate that the 'Omicron' variant of COVID-19 is more transmissible than the Delta variant currently dominant in the UK, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his Cabinet ministers on Tuesday, reported news agency PTI. Johnson's official Number 10 Downing Street spokesperson told reporters in an account of the Cabinet meeting that Johnson reiterated it was still too early to draw conclusions on the wider impact of the new variant, which would depend on whether it causes severe illness. His comments come as the UK recorded 101 more 'Omicron' cases on Tuesday, taking the total for the variant first detected in South Africa up to 437.
COVID-19 India News: 245 UK Returnees Test Negative In GoaThe Goa government on Tuesday said that all the 245 passengers who arrived in the state from the UK during the day tested negative for coronavirus infection. State Health Minister Vishwajit Rane made the announcement on Twitter. As per Goa Airport, the 97th Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) flight arrived with 245 passengers on board from London-Heathrow on Tuesday morning. So far, five patients including two Russians have been isolated in the state on suspicion that they might be carrying the 'Omicron' variant infection. Their samples have been sent for genome sequencing and results are awaited.
COVID-19 India News: Fight With Pandemic Far From Over, Says Army ChiefAs the scare over the 'Omicron' variant of coronavirus, Army Chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane on Tuesday said that the fight with the pandemic is far from over, according to news agency ANI. At the curtain-raiser of PANEX-21, the disaster management exercise involving BIMSTEC member countries, Gen Naravane said the supply chains have been badly disrupted and the economic losses have crippled economies worldwide, impacting lives and livelihoods.
"The situation would have been far worse had it not been for the collaborative efforts and cooperation between countries in sharing medicines, vaccines and providing critical assistance across borders," he said.
COVID-19 News: UK Reports 101 More 'Omicron' Variant Cases
Britain has found a further 101 confirmed cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant, the UK Health Security Agency said on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases to 437, according to news agency Reuters.
COVID-19 India News: 2 Foreign Returnees Test Positive In MP Amid 'Omicron' ScareAmid concerns over the 'Omicron' variant of coronavirus, two persons who returned to Bhopal from the UK and Canada, respectively, tested positive for coronavirus infection on Tuesday, an official said, according to news agency PTI. Following the test results, the two men, aged 41 and 42, were isolated and their samples were sent for genome sequencing to ascertain if they are infected with the Omicron variant, the health official added.
India Supplied Over 7.23 Crore Covid Doses To 94 Countries, 2 UN Entities: CentreIndia has supplied over 7.23 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 94 countries and two UN entities since the start of the Vaccine Maitri programme in January this year, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday, reported news agency PTI. India supplied COVID-19-related medical and other assistance to over 150 countries since the beginning of the pandemic, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.
COVID-19 News: EU Health Ministers Meet As 'Omicron' Cases Rise In EuropeEuropean Union health ministers met on Tuesday as national governments step up measures to try to curb the 'Omicron' variant of Covid-19 spreading across Europe as winter closes in, news agency AFP reported. The gathering was expected to aim for greater coordination of bloc-wide measures in response, such as travel recommendations, and to hear pleas to accelerate vaccinations.
"I will be calling on all health ministers to close the immunisation gap to increase their vaccination rollout programmes and... adhere to non-pharmaceutical measures (like) wearing masks and social distancing," EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said as she went into the meeting.
"We still don't know everything about Omicron," German Health Minister Jens Spahn said as he joined his EU counterparts in Brussels.
COVID-19: On Mandatory Vaccines, WHO Europe Says "Absolute Last Resort"The World Health Organization in Europe on Tuesday called for better protection of children against Covid-19, with five-to-14-year-olds currently the most infected group, reported news agency AFP. Mandatory vaccines should also be "an absolute last resort and only applicable when all other feasible options to improve vaccination uptake have been exhausted," regional director for WHO Europe, Hans Kluge, told a press conference.
COVID-19 News: Karnataka Eyes More Genome Sequencing Labs Amid 'Omicron' FearsThe Karnataka government is taking measures to set up more genome sequencing laboratories in the state, said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday amid concerns over the spread of 'Omicron' variant of coronavirus, according to news agency PTI.
During the second wave of the pandemic, the government had said six genome sequencing labs were being set up at Bengaluru, Mysuru, Shivamogga, Hubballi, Mangaluru and Vijayapura.
"We have taken measures to set up genomic sequencing labs; it requires expert facilities and lab equipment. Instructions have been given to the health secretary in this regard," the chief minister told reporters. "We are taking all required measures to set up more such labs," added Mr Bommai.
Two cases of 'Omicron' were detected in Karnataka last week.
COVID-19 India News: Puducherry Reports 12 New Cases, One Related DeathPuducherry posted 12 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday raising the total caseload to 1,29,105, reported news agency PTI. The new cases were identified at the end of examination of 2,729 samples and they were spread over Puducherry 11 and Yanam one. One more person succumbed to infection in Yanam raising the overall death count to 1,876.
There were 229 active cases, which comprised 55 patients in hospitals and remaining 174 patients in home isolation. While 32 patients recovered and were discharged during the last 24 hours, the overall recoveries were 1,27.000. The Department of Health has tested so far 19.98 lakh samples and found 16.96 lakh out of them to be negative.
WHO Advises Against Blood Plasma Treatment For COVID-19 Covid treatments using plasma taken from the blood of recovered coronavirus patients should not be given to people with mild or moderate illness, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
Convalescent plasma showed some early promise when given intravenously to people sick with Covid-19.
But in advice published in the British Medical Journal, the WHO now says that "current evidence shows that it does not improve survival nor reduce the need for mechanical ventilation, and it is costly and time-consuming to administer".
Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Arunachal Pradesh Reports Single COVID-19 Case, 2 Recoveries
Arunachal Pradesh reported only a single COVID-19 case on Tuesday, taking the virus tally to 55,294. As many as 54,979 people have recuperated from the disease so far in the state, including two on Monday. The northeastern state had reported five new COVID-19 cases on Monday.
Mizoram Reports 330 New COVID-19 Cases, 1 Related Death
Mizoram on Tuesday reported 330 new COVID-19 cases, 238 more than the previous day, pushing the tally to 1,36,784. The death count rose to 508 as a 65-year-old man from Aizawl district succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours. The single-day test positivity rate rose to 8.47 per cent from 5.89 per cent on Monday.
Omicron-Infected Bengaluru Doctor Tests Positive Again A 46-year-old Bengaluru doctor, who was among the first cases of Omicron in India, has again tested positive for Covid, a senior official said today.
The RT-PCR test was conducted seven days after his last test, as per the mandate issued by the Health ministry. He will be kept under observation for another seven days and be discharged only after a negative RT-PCR test.
Karnataka was the first state in the country to report two cases - 46-year-old male and a 66-year-old male - of the coronavirus variant in India.
Coronavirus LIVE Updates: 91 New COVID-19 Cases In Thane, 1 Death
With the addition of 91 new cases of coronavirus, the infection count in Maharashtra's Thane district has reached 5,69,962, while one more death raised the count to 11,589. The COVID-19 mortality rate in Thane is now 2.03 per cent.