COVID-19 third wave in the country seems to have weakened with fresh infections recorded in the last 24 hours dropping below one lakh mark for the first time, after almost a month. The COVID cases had begun to show a significant rise following the emergence of the Omicron variant last year.

As many as 83,876 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The country also reported 1,99,054 recoveries and 895 deaths in the 24-hour period.

With this, the active caseload in the country reached 11,08,938. At present, Kerala (3,30,105) has the highest number of active COVID-19 cases followed by Maharashtra (1,22,015) and Tamil Nadu (1,21,828).

A daily positivity rate of 7.25 per cent was recorded as 11,56,363 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. The weekly COVID-19 positivity rate remained at 9.18 per cent.

In India, as many as 5,02,874 people have succumbed to the coronavirus infection so far including 895 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The cumulative recoveries stand at 4,06,60,202 while the recovery rate is at 96.19 per cent.

After witnessing the second wave in April-May last year, COVID-19 cases in India started declining in subsequent months and daily infections spike reached as low as 5,326 new cases on December 21.

Meanwhile, the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529), a new variant of the coronavirus, was first reported in Botswana on November 11, 2021, and appeared on November 14 in South Africa. India detected its first Omicron case on December 2 last year in Karnataka.

Following the emergence of the Omicron variant, daily cases began rising by December-end and breached the 1-lakh mark on January 7 when 1,17,100 fresh infections were reported. In a written reply in Lok Sabha on February 4, 2022, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar stated that “an upsurge of COVID-19 cases in the country was observed by the end of December, 2021 which was primarily driven by the Omicron variant”.

The peak of the current surge was recorded on January 21, 2022, when 3,47,254 new cases were recorded in a 24-hour period.

Meanwhile, on the vaccination front, India administered more than 14.70 lakh doses (14,70,053) COVID vaccine doses in the last 24 hours. With this, the country’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 169.63 crore (1,69,63,80,755) as per provisional reports till 7 am today.