India registered 2,68,833 coronavirus cases on Saturday morning, taking the overall tally to 3.67 crore since the pandemic began in the country in January 2020. The number of cases was marginally higher than Friday’s count of 2,64,202.

The active cases went up by 1,45,747, taking the total count to 14,17,820. The daily positivity rate stood at 16.66%.

The toll increased to 4,85,752 after 402 patients died over the last 24 hours.

As many as 1,22,684 people recovered from the disease on Saturday, taking the total to 3,49,47,390. The recovery rate stood at 95.20%.

Cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus rose to 6,041 from Friday’s tally of 5,753 infections.

Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

The single-day case count in Delhi, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka remained above the 20,000-mark for the second consecutive day on Friday.

Delhi on Friday reported 24,383 new cases of Covid-19, while 34 patients died due to the disease in the last 24 hours.

The number of cases were less than Thursday’s all-time high tally of 28,867 infections. However, 79,578 tests were conducted on Friday, as compared to 98,832 on Thursday. In fact, the test positivity rate rose to 30.64 % from 29.21% on Friday.

Karnataka on Friday reported 28,723 new Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths. Capital Bengaluru alone accounted for 20,121 of the infections.

West Bengal reported 22,645 new cases, of which Kolkata recorded 6,867. In Tamil Nadu, 23,459 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, with 8,963 fresh cases in Chennai.

Meanwhile, Mumbai reported 11,317 fresh cases and nine deaths, government data showed. The number of active cases also dipped from 95,123 on Thursday to 84,352 on Friday.

Amid the uptick in cases, thousands of devotees on Friday took a dip in the Ganga in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh as a ritual of the Makar Sankranti festival.

In visuals from prominent Hindu pilgrim sites, Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh and the Sagar Island in West Bengal, devotees could be seen bathing in the river and crowding on its banks without adhering to Covid-19 norms like physical distancing and use of masks.

However, authorities claimed that they did their best to screen the devotees as per guidelines issued by the state governments.