File photo
File photo | Photo Credit: The Hindu

India reported 3,47,254 new cases, including higher mortality at 703 deaths, on Friday (24 hours till 8 am). The country also reported 9,692 total Omicron cases, an increase of 4.36 percent since yesterday, the Union Health Ministry said.

Kerala at 341 deaths (including 309 revised number of deaths), accounted for a large part of the increased mortality number. The other States reported a high number of deaths included Delhi at 43, Tamil Nadu at 39, West Bengal and Maharashtra at 37, and Punjab at 36.

Meanwhile, the country crossed a total of 160 crore vaccinations, with 70 lakh doses given in the last 24 hours. In the same time period, a total of 19,35,912 tests were conducted, taking the cumulative number of tests to 71.15 crore. India’s daily positivity rate stood at 17.94 percent, a notch higher than the weekly rate at 16.56 percent.

The day’s tally comes even as Delhi looks to relax its weekend curfews, Maharashtra prepares to open up schools from Monday and Kerala tightens restrictions. Globally, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases reported to the World Health Organization were 336,790,193 cases and 55,60,718 deaths.