India reports 2,38,018 fresh COVID cases, 310 deaths in last 24 hours; Omicron case tally now at 8,891

India reported 2,38,018 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus, along with 310 deaths, according to the data updated by the Health Ministry at 8 am on Tuesday. The new cases of COVID-19 were 20,071 less than the total cases reported on Monday. A total of 1,57,421 recoveries were logged in the past 24 hours. Active cases of coronavirus in India are now at 17,36,628, with the daily positivity rate at 14.43 per cent.

With this, the Omicron case tally in India has now reached 8,891 — a rise of 8.31 per cent since yesterday.

Experts said it is not possible to undertake genome sequencing of each and every sample but stressed that the current wave is largely being driven by the Omicron variant.

The active cases comprise 4.62 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 94.09 per cent, the ministry said.

An increase of 80,287 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

On Monday, India saw a single-day rise of 2,58,089 new coronavirus infections taking the tally of cases to 3,73,80,253, which included 8,209 cases of the Omicron variant, according to data updated by the Union Health Ministry.

Maharashtra had recorded the maximum — 1,738 cases of the Omicron variant, followed by West Bengal 1,672, Rajasthan 1,276, Delhi 549, Karnataka 548 and Kerala 536 cases.