In India, the third wave of the pandemic seems to have set in.
On Thursday, the country reported a whopping 91,000 new Covid cases and as many as 325 deaths in 24 hours. The Indian capital alone recorded over 15,000 cases of coronavirus -- a 41per cent spike in just a day.
Of the 90,928 Covid cases logged pan-India in 24 hours that took the total case count to 351,09,286, as many as 2,630 were of the Omicron variant, as per the official figures released by the Indian Health Ministry, reports UNB.
Delhi, on the other hand, recorded its biggest single-day spike in eight months, as 15,097 fresh infections were recorded in 24 hours. The infection figure was 10,665 on Wednesday.
The national capital's positivity rate also surged past 15%, as per the government statistics.
Just a day before, the country reported its first Omicron death in the northwestern state of Rajasthan's Udaipur city, as the country recorded 58,097 fresh Covid cases and 534 fatalities in 24 hours.
The Omicron victim -- identified as 73-year-old Laxminarayan Nagar -- tested positive for Covid on December 15. A subsequent genome sequencing of his blood samples confirmed that the man had contracted the Omicron strain, according to health officials.
The man who had comorbidities but was doubly vaccinated, succumbed to the Omicron strain of the coronavirus in the early hours of December 31, according to the officials.
Omicron has been classified as "a variant of concern" by the World Health Organisation.
Alarmed by the rising Omicron cases, India's federal government two weeks ago warned states that "the variant is three times more transmissible than the Delta" and directed them to take action to rein in its spread.
Earlier last month, India's civil aviation regulator backtracked on its decision to resume regular international flights from December 15.
The government put curbs on all flights in March 2020 following the Covid-induced lockdown. However, it allowed domestic flights from May 2020, and the entry of foreigners except for tourists from October.
