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On Thursday, India has reported 7,495 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. With the new addition, the country's caseload of Covid-19 infections has reached to 3,47,65,976. Currently the active caseload in the country stands at 78,190, which is the lowest in 573 days, the ministry said.

The Health Ministry said, with 318 fresh Covid-related deaths in the past 24 hours, the total death count in the country has reached to 4,78,325. The number of fatalities yesterday is significantly up from Tuesday's spike of 132 deaths. Active cases in India account for less than 1% of total cases, currently at 0.23%, which is the lowest since March 2020. 

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that total samples tested up to 22nd December 2021are 66,86,43,929 and samples tested on 22nd December 2021 are 12,05,775. 

Omicron Cases 

The Health Ministry said that the total number of Omicron cases in India has reached to 236, of which 104 have recovered. 

Karnataka's tally of Omicron cases has reached to 23 with a family of four testing positive. “The UK returnee was tested negative for the virus at the airport. After two days she developed symptoms and got her tested at a private hospital where she was found to be Covid positive. Her family members- mother (50-year-old), father (56 year old) and sister (20 year old) were also tested  and their results on December 16 confirmed they were also positive. The apartment was declared a cluster and sealed. The samples were sent for genome sequencing and the results on Wednesday (December 22) confirmed they were infected with Omicron. All the members of the family have been fully vaccinated ,” a senior BBMP official said.  

The WHO 

In a briefing with media, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, Maria van Kerkhove said, “We do have some data suggesting that rates of hospitalization are lower. We have not seen this variant circulate long enough in populations around the world, certainly in vulnerable populations”.