India's total COVID-19 cases reach 35.52m

India reported 159,632 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, as the omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly in the country.

>>Reuters
Published : 9 Jan 2022, 06:43 AM
Updated : 9 Jan 2022, 06:43 AM

The health ministry also reported 327 new deaths, taking the total death toll to 483,790. Total infections stand at 35.52 million.

Nearly 70% of Indians had been infected with the coronavirus by the middle of last year, according to government serological surveys, while an almost equal proportion of adults have been fully vaccinated as of last week.

As cases have shot up, the health ministry said that starting from Jan 11 arrivals from all countries would have to isolate at home for a week. Some 2% of such people would be tested at their port of arrival, and sent to institutional quarantine if found positive for COVID-19.

Earlier, only all those arriving from countries with a high number of cases had to be mandatorily tested and sent to institutional quarantine if found positive or home quarantine for a week if negative.

More than 301.48 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 5,827,671 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.