India logs 30,615 new COVID infections in past 24 hrs

India witnessed a slight increase in fresh COVID-19 cases with the country reporting 30,615 new infections in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday.

The country recorded 27,409 coronavirus cases on Tuesday.

The daily positivity rate has also increased slightly to 2.45 per cent while the weekly positivity rate is 3.32 per cent. At present, the active caseload of India stands at 3,70,240 accounting for 0.87 per cent of the total cases.

As many as 82,988 people have been recovered from COVID-19 infection in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries to 4,18,43,446.

A total of 75.42 crore tests have been conducted to detect coronavirus infection in India so far including 12,51,677 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.

India has administered 173.86 crore COVID vaccine doses so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

The COVID cases had begun to show a significant rise following the emergence of the Omicron variant last year.

After witnessing the second wave in April-May last year, COVID-19 cases in India started declining in subsequent months and daily infections reached as low as 5,326 new cases on December 21.

Meanwhile, the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529), a new variant of the coronavirus, was first reported in Botswana on November 11, 2021, and appeared on November 14 in South Africa. India detected its first Omicron case on December 2 last year in Karnataka.

Following the emergence of the Omicron variant, daily cases began rising by December-end and breached the 1-lakh mark on January 7 when 1,17,100 fresh infections were reported. The peak of the surge was recorded on January 21, 2022, when 3,47,254 new cases were recorded in a 24-hour period.

(ANI)

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