New Delhi (TIP)- With 2,451 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India‘s total tally of Covid cases rose to  4,30,52,425, while the active cases increased to 14,241, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday, April 22. The death toll climbed to 5,22,116 with 54 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprised 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid recovery rate was recorded as 98.75 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 808 cases has been recorded in the active Covid caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.55 per cent and the weekly positivity rate as 0.47 per cent, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,25,16,068, while the case fatality rate was 1.21 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide Covid vaccination drive has exceeded 187.26 crore. Among the 54 new fatalities 48 were from Kerala and one each from Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttarakhand. A total of 5,22,116 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,47,831 from Maharashtra, 68,750 from Kerala, 40,057 from Karnataka, 38,025 from Tamil Nadu, 26,162 from Delhi, 23,502 from Uttar Pradesh and 21,200 from West Bengal.

Delhi surge may be due to new Omicron sub-variant

The sudden rise in Covid cases in the national Capital may be due to a new sub-variant of Omicron detected in the majority samples in the first fortnight of April. The surge has caused the Delhi Disaster Management Authority to bring back the mask mandate and impose a Rs 500 penalty for violation.

Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12 could be linked to the surge in and around the city, said a source in the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), the umbrella body conducting advanced genome surveillance to determine the variant lineages of Covid-19 positive persons.

He said the Omicron variant BA.2.12.1 had been found in the Delhi samples — the same variant that had caused a spurt in cases in the US recently. The Health Ministry was silent on the issue.The Director, National Centre for Disease Control, SK Singh, did not respond to calls. Sources said BA.2.12 (52% samples) and BA.2.10 (11% samples) with a higher transmission potential had been detected in 60 per cent of all Delhi samples with BA.2.12 prima facie having a growth advantage of 30 to 90 per cent a week over BA.2 (Omicron). A source said more than 300 samples had been subjected to genome surveillance in Delhi in the first fortnight of April.    Source: PTI and TNS