New Delhi: India’s Covid-19 tally was below 30,000 after around 44 days, taking the virus tally to 4,26,92,943, while the active cases dipped to 4,23,127, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday (February 15). The country reported 27,409 new infections in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare . The death toll climbed to 5,09,358 with 347 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily Covid-19 cases have been recorded less than one lakh for nine consecutive days.
The active cases comprise 0.99 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has further improved to 97.82 per cent, the ministry said. A reduction of 55,755 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 crores on May 4 and three crores on June 23.
After witnessing the second wave in April-May last year, Covid-19 cases in India started declining in subsequent months and daily infections spike 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. In a written reply in Lok Sabha on February 4, 2022, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar stated that “an upsurge of COVID-19 cases in the country was observed by the end of December 2021 which was primarily driven by the Omicron variant”.
