India logs 282,970 new Covid infections, active cases highest in 232 days

With 2,82,970 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,79,01,241, which includes 8,961 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

The active cases have increased to 18,31,000, the highest in 232 days. The active cases stood at 18,95,520 on May 31 last year.

The death toll has climbed to 4,87,202 with 441 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

There has been an 0.79 per cent increase in Omicron cases since Tuesday, the ministry said.

Experts said it is not possible to undertake genome sequencing of each and every sample but stressed that the current wave is largely being driven by the Omicron variant.

The active cases comprise 4.83 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.88 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 44,952 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.