COVID-19 | India records 159,632 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, highest in 224 days

159,632 new COVID-19 cases have been recorded in India in the last 24 hours. The highest addition of cases in the last 222 days was this one.

India's active caseload is currently 590,611, which is the highest in around 199 days. There were 165,553 infections reported on May 29 last year. The death toll increased to 483,790.

552 new cases have been added across 27 states and UTs so far, bringing the total number of Omicron infections to 3,623. 1,409 people have migrated or recovered from Omicron cases.

There are 1009 Omicron infections in Maharashtra. It was followed by Delhi, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.

In the last 24 hours, 40,863 recoveries were made, taking the total recovery to over 3 million dollars.

The recovery rate is at 96.98 percent, while the active cases are at 1.66 percent. The daily positivity rate is 10.21 percent and the weekly rate is 6.77 percent.

Over 150 million vaccine doses have been administered across India so far and 69 million tests have been conducted.

The Prime Minister is expected to chair a meeting on January 9 to review the situation in the country.

The Election Commission of India announced the schedule of assembly elections in five states to be held in February-March.

The feature to book online slots for a "precautionary dose" of COVID-19 vaccine, through the government's CoWIN platform, was enabled on January 8.

The third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered from January 10 onwards.

The feature for online appointments for Precaution Dose for HCWs/FLWs and Citizens (60+) is now live on Co-WIN. To book an appointment, please visit http://cowin.gov.in, which is the Mission Director of Centre's National Health Mission.

All frontline and healthcare workers, along with the 60-plus population with comorbidities, will be eligible for the additional jab. Since the second dose was administered to them, the minimum time period should have expired.

The Union health ministry said that those eligible for the precautionary dose don't need to register again on the CoWIN portal or app. They can either use the platform to book vaccine slots, or walk in to receive the jab.

The inputs from the news agency.