Covid update as India celebrates 73rd Republic Day

As India celebrated its 73rd Republic Day today, the Covid count across the states continued to show slow but steady increase for yet another day of the third wave of the ongoing pandemic. While some states imposed further restrictions, some others loosened a few provisions that were to be followed. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Wednesday said that the Delhi government will recommend the reopening of schools in the national capital in a DDMA meeting on January 27. Meanwhile, Mumbai welcomed back the school students with precautionary measures.

Hyderabad:As India celebrated its 73rd Republic Day today, the Covid count across the states continued to show a slow but steady increase for yet another day of the third wave of the ongoing pandemic. While some states imposed further restrictions, some others loosened a few provisions that were to be followed. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Wednesday said that the Delhi government will recommend the reopening of schools in the national capital in a DDMA meeting on January 27. Meanwhile, Mumbai welcomed back the school students with precautionary measures.

National capital Delhi reported 7,498 fresh COVID-19 cases and 29 deaths, with the positivity rate witnessing a marginal increase to 10.59 per cent, according to data shared by the city government's health department on Wednesday. The number of daily cases in Delhi has been declining after touching the record high of 28,867 on January 13.

Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded 35,756 new coronavirus cases, up from 33,914 logged a day ago, while deaths linked to the infection remained high at 79, the state health department said. No new cases of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus were reported in the state, the department said in a bulletin. With these additions, the state's COVID-19 caseload rose to 76,05,181, while the death toll reached 1,42,316, it said.

Kerala logged 49,771 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday taking the caseload to 57,74,857, while the death toll rose to 52,281 with 140 COVID-19-related deaths being registered. On Tuesday, the state had recorded 55,475 fresh cases, the highest ever single-day spike in the infection since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.

The coronavirus caseload in Gujarat on Wednesday crossed the 11 lakh mark with the addition of 14,781 new cases, the state health department said. The tally of infections in the state reached 11,07,749. With 21 patients succumbing to the viral infection during the day, the death toll reached 10,323. Both new cases and deaths declined compared to the previous day.

Twenty-two more people died of COVID-19 in Punjab, while 5,136 fresh cases pushed the infection tally to 7,28,042, according to a medical bulletin issued here. The fresh deaths were reported from several districts including Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Mansa and Mohali. The death toll in the state has now climbed to 17,081, as per the bulletin.

Bihar reported 2,120 new COVID-19 cases, 242 less than the previous day, taking the tally to 8,17,824, a bulletin issued by the health department said. Seven coronavirus patients died in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 12,204.

Chhattisgarh's COVID-19 count rose to 11,08,450 on Wednesday with an addition of 3,318 fresh cases, while the death toll increased to 13,779 after 10 more patients succumbed to the infection in the state, an official said. The daily figure was lower than 4,914 cases registered a day ago when the state had also recorded 23 deaths.

Andhra Pradesh logged 13,618 fresh cases of Covid-19 and nine related deaths in the last 24 hours. The daily infection positivity rate hovered around 30 per cent. The latest bulletin said the total active cases climbed to 1,06,318.

Mizoram on Wednesday reported 1,756 new COVID-19 cases, two less than the previous day, with the tally mounting to 1,64, 127, a health department official said. The single-day positivity rate stood at 25.89 per cent as the fresh infections were detected from 6,780 sample tests, he said. At least 251 children were among the newly infected people.

Telangana on Wednesday recorded 3,801 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 7,47,155, while the death toll rose to 4,078 with one more fatality.

The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh rose to 9,24,161 on Wednesday after the detection of 9,966 new cases, while the death toll increased to 10,591 after eight more patients succumbed to the infection in the state, a health department official said.

Registering a surge in numbers again, Karnataka reported 48,905 new cases of COVID-19 and 39 fatalities, taking the tally to 36,54,413, and the death toll to 38,705. There were 41,699 discharges, taking the total number of recoveries to 32,57,769, a bulletin said.

COVID-19 case count dropped below 30,000 in Tamil Nadu as it added 29,976 cases, pushing the caseload to 32,24,236, the health department said. As many as 47 more people succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours, mounting the death toll to 37,359 to date, a medical bulletin said.

New COVID-19 infections have been hovering over 30,000 over the last few days and Tamil Nadu has been witnessing a declining trend after reaching a peak of 30,744 cases on January 22.

Nagaland on Wednesday logged 130 new COVID-19 cases, 34 less than the previous day, pushing the tally to 33,948, a health official said. As no fresh death was reported in the last 24 hours, the coronavirus fatality figure remained unchanged at 708.

Jammu and Kashmir recorded 5,606 fresh cases of coronavirus, raising its tally to 4,14,172, while eight more deaths pushed the toll to 4,635, officials said. Of the fresh cases, 1,353 were reported from the Jammu division and 5,253 from the Kashmir division of the union territory, they said.

Sikkim reported 206 new Covid-19 cases, 31 less than the previous day's count, pushing the tally to 37,539, a health department bulletin said here. It said one fresh fatality took the death toll to 425. Sikkim currently has 1,928 active cases, while 600 patients have migrated out and 34,586 people have recovered from coronavirus. The daily positivity rate now is 16 per cent, while the daily recovery rate is 94 per cent.