India’s Covid cases number has increased by 6,358; active cases are now below the 80,000.

Key sentence:

• On Tuesday, the daily Covid-19 tally in India dropped by 6,358 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 34,799,691.
• The Omicron variant of the coronavirus had spread to 21 states and territories, bringing the total number of cases to 653.
• Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister, will convene a high-level meeting to assess the current Covid-19 situation in the national capital. 

India’s daily Covid-19 tally fell by 6,358 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections to 34,799,691, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As of Tuesday, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus had spread to 21 states and territories, bringing the total number of cases to 653. Maharashtra topped the list with 167 confirmed cases, followed by Delhi (165), Kerala (57), and Telangana (55).

According to the ministry, the death toll rose to 480,290 after 293 people died from the virus.

The active caseload is currently 75,456, representing 0.22 percent of the total caseload. According to data from the ministry, it is the lowest since the coronavirus pandemic began in March of last year.

The current recovery rate is 98.40 percent, which is the highest since March 2020. In the last 24 hours, 6,450 people have recovered from Covid-19. The total amount recovered is currently 34,243,945, according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister, will convene a high-level meeting to assess the current Covid-19 situation in the national capital. With the danger of a 3rd wave of the pandemic looming, the chief minister is likely to discuss whether more travel and economic restrictions are needed to control the surge in cases.

In addition, Kejriwal is expected to decide whether to activate the ‘Yellow’ alert and impose restrictions following the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

The ‘yellow’ alert is triggered when the Covid positivity rate exceeds 0.5 percent for two days in a row. It includes restrictions such as night curfews, school, and college closures, non-essential store openings on alternate days, and halved seating capacity in Metro trains and public transportation buses, among others.