New Delhi, March 17: The Central Government on Thursday said global Covid-19 surge due to new variant Omicron led to a peak six times the previous waves, but India managed it well. There were lower hospitalisation and fewer deaths than earlier surges.
The Union Health Ministry said with 3,536 cases reported on an average in the week ending March 15, India contributed to only 0.21 per cent of global Covid-19 cases.
On the other hand, there are several countries that are still experiencing an uptick in Covid-19 cases, which is higher than their previous surges.
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"The country managed the Omicron surge much better than others," a health ministry official said during a presentation at a webinar on India's Public Health Response to Manage Covid.
By December 31, 2021, when the first signs of the third wave emerged, India had already vaccinated 90.8 per cent of the eligible population with the first dose and 65.4 per cent with the second dose.
So far, India has administered more than 180 crore vaccine doses which is 3.2 times that of the US and 12.7 times of France, officials said.
Meanwhile, with the addition of 2,539 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the total active cases in India further declined to 30,799 constituting 0.07 per cent of the country's total positive cases, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.
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The overall Covid-19 cases in the country stand at 4,30,01,477. According to the health ministry, the daily positivity rate has fallen to 0.35 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate is 0.42 per cent. With 4,491 recoveries in the last 24 hours, the cumulative recovery in the country stands at 4,24,54,546. While death count rose to 5,16,132 with 60 fresh Covid-related fatalities.
The recovery rate in India has increased to 98.72 per cent and the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.20 per cent. "India has so far conducted 78.12 crore COVID-19 tests including 7,17,330 tests conducted in the last 24 hours," the ministry added.
-PTC News
