NewDelhi Feb 2 : India on Wednesday reported 1,61,386 new coronavirus cases and 2,81,109 recoveries in the last 24 hours, data from the Union Health Ministry showed.
Wednesday’s cases were over 3 per cent lower than Tuesday’s 1,67,059 infections, an indicator that the downward trend in daily infections may have begun.
Active cases stand at 17,43,059.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation chief sounded caution on Tuesday saying that 90 million cases of coronavirus have been reported since the Omicron variant was first identified 10 weeks ago amounting to more than in all of 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With many countries easing their restrictive measures amid public fatigue about them, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyeus warned that Omicron should not be underestimated even though it has shown to bring less severe illness than earlier variants and cited “a very worrying increase in deaths in most regions of the world’.