3.5L new Covid cases in 24 hours

New Delhi: India logged 3.47 lakh new Covid cases, 9% higher than yesterday, while the active cases rose to 20,18,825, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The overall count of the highly infectious Omicron variant reached 9,692 on Friday with 29 States reporting cases of the new strain.

The death toll climbed to 4,88,396 with 703 fresh fatalities according to the data updated at 9 am.

With a tally of 3.91 crore cases, India is the second worst-hit country after the US.

The active cases now comprise 5.23 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.50 per cent.

An increase of 94, 774 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours, according to the health ministry data updated this morning.

The daily positivity rate stood at 17.94 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 16.56 per cent.

The testing capacity across the country continues to be expanded. The last 24 hours saw a total of 19,35,912 tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 71.15 crore (71,15,38,938) cumulative tests.

Meanwhile more than 159.91 crore (1,59,91,02,495) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far through Union government (free of cost channel) and through direct State procurement category: and more than 12.73 Cr (12,73,96,806) balance and unutilized Covid Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered.

Moreover, with the administration of more than 70 lakh doses (70,49,779) vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 160.43 crore (1,60,43,70,484) as per provisional reports till 7 am on Friday.