India has logged 3,17,532 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours and the daily positivity rate stood at 16.41 per cent, said Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday. India reported 2,82,970 new COVID-19 cases with a daily positivity rate of 15.13 per cent yesterday. The weekly positivity rate stood at 16.06 per cent, as per government’s data released today.

With the addition of new infections recorded in the country, the active cases mounted to 19,24,051. As per the ministry, the active cases account for 5.03 percent of the total cases. In the last 24 hours, 2,23,990 recoveries were reported, With this, the total recoveries climbed to 3,58,07,029. Consequently, the recovery rate is currently at 93.69 percent.

The number of people who succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours is 491. The death toll is at 4,87,693.

The country has so far registered 9,287 cases of COVID-19 variant Omicron. There is an increase of 3.63 per cent in its cases since Wednesday, as per the ministry. To detect the presence of the virus, 19,35,180 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.

Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, 70.93 crore tests have been conducted. Meanwhile, in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive, 159.67 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far. Notably, India’s vaccination drive commenced on January 16, 2021 and it has completed one full year. - AFP