India Covid update: Sharp spike with over 3.17 lakh cases in a day, 491 deaths

India has registered the highest single-day spike in Covid cases in the last eight months with over 3.17 lakh new cases in 24 hours, government data showed on Thursday morning.

This is the first time that daily cases have crossed the 3-lakh mark in the ongoing Third Wave of coronvirus in the country.

India also logged 491 deaths due the virus in 24 hours, taking total fatalities to 4,87,693. The spike in deaths is mainly due to readjustment of figures in Kerala after re-evaluation. The southern state added 134 earlier deaths to its Covid tally on Wednesday.

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With a sharp jump in fresh cases, active case of Covid-19 have now jumped to over 19.2 lakh. The active cases have increased by more that 93,000 in a day, according to the health ministry data.

The daily positivity rate has now shot up to 16.41 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 16.06 per cent.

Meanwhile, the number of infections due to the Omicron variant of coronavirus has surged to 9,287.

At the global level, India is the second worst-hit country after the US.

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