Covid-19 fourth wave threat: India sees massive spike in daily cases, reports 12,213 new infections

India witnessed a massive spike in its daily Covid-19 cases and reported 12,213 infections and 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll to 5,24,803, according to the data released by the Ministry of Health on Thursday (June 16, 2022).

The active cases stand at 58,215. An increase of 4,578 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The country also recorded 7,624 recoveries today, taking the total number of recoveries to 4,26,74,712. 

The active cases account for 0.13 per cent of the total caseload, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 98.65 per cent, the ministry said.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.35 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 2.38 per cent, according to the ministry.

Additionally, the cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive have exceeded ​​​​194.67 crore. 

As many as 5,19,419 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours to detect the presence of the virus.

Meanwhile, an international team of researchers has discovered specific genetic signals in people who develop severe coronavirus infection.

Using machine learning, researchers from the University of Sheffield and Stanford Medicine identified more than 1,000 genes linked to the development of severe Covid-19 cases that required breathing support, or were fatal.