India on Friday morning reported 1,17,100 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total since the pandemic began in 2020 to 3,52,26,386, data from the health ministry showed. The recovery rate improved to 97.57%.

Friday’s figures were 28% higher than Thursday’s count of 90,928 infections. After seven months, the daily caseload has crossed the 1 lakh-mark in the country. On June 6, India reported 1,14,460 cases, when the second wave of the pandemic had started to wane.

The daily positivity rate is 7.74%. The active caseload stood at 3,71,363.

Daily Covid deaths rose by 302 on Friday, taking the tally to 4,83,178.

Cases of the Omicron variant increased to 3,007 from Thursday’s count of 2,630, the government said. Omicron was first reported in the country on December 2 and has now spread to 27 states and Union Territories.

A woman who had contracted the Omicron strain died in Odisha’s Balangir district on Thursday, The Hindu reported. This is the state’s first death due to the highly transmissible variant and India’s second casualty linked to Omicron.

The woman had tested positive for Covid-19 on December 22. But, she died before her genome sequencing result was declared.

“The woman’s death is being audited as she visited two major hospitals,” an official told The Hindu. “As per the existing guidelines, if a person who tests positive dies within 30 days of detection of coronavirus, he or she will be declared dying of Covid-19.”

Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are experiencing a huge surge of coronavirus cases. Mumbai on Thursday reported 20,181 new coronavirus cases, a 33.06% rise as compared to Wednesday’s count of 15,166 infections.

As many as 2,847 people recovered from Covid-19 or were discharged from hospitals, a sharp rise from the previous day’s count of 714 such persons.

Mumbai civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal had earlier said that “stringent measures” may be implemented in the city if daily Covid-19 cases cross the 20,000-mark.

Meanwhile, Delhi on Thursday registered 15,097 new Covid-19 cases, a rise of 41.55% as compared to Wednesday’s count of 10,665 cases.

The city’s Covid-19 tally on Thursday was the highest single-day rise since May 8. The positivity rate in the Capital also increased steeply to 15.34% from 11.88% a day earlier.

Six people died due to the coronavirus in Delhi and the case fatality rate currently is 1.69%. There are presently 31,498 active Covid-19 cases in the Capital.

In West Bengal, Kolkata accounted for more than 40% of the 15,421 new coronavirus cases reported by the state on Thursday, The Indian Express reported. Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, Director of Health Services Dr Ajoy Chakraborty and Director of Medical Education Debashis Bhattacharya are among those who have tested positive for the infection.