India reports nearly 1.6 lakh COVID cases

The grim surge in COVID cases across the country continued on Sunday. Data from the ministry of health and family welfare released on Sunday morning showed a total of 1,59,632 new COVID cases had been reported in the past 24 hours.

COVID cases in India have been rising steeply over the past week. Sunday's figures take the total COVID tally in India to 3,55,28,004.

This is the highest number of COVID cases reported in 224 days. The number of active cases has risen to 5,90,611, the highest in 197 days.

The number of Omicron cases has risen to 3,623, with infections being reported across 27 states and Union territories. A total of 552 cases of Omicron were reported in the past 24 hours. Maharashtra has reported the most number of Omicron cases with 1,009 infections, followed by Delhi (513) and Karnataka (441).