India recorded 3,06,064 new Covid-19 cases and 439 related deaths in the last 24 hours ending 8 am, Monday. While the daily cases have dropped from that of Sunday’s (over 3.33 lakh cases), the positivity rate climbed to 20.75 per cent. According to the Union Ministry of Health, India’s active caseload currently stands at 22,49,335.

Kerala on Monday reported 26,514 new Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths on Monday, a statement from the health department said. The test positivity rate surged to 47.72 per cent. A total of 55,557 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. There are 2,60,271 active Covid cases in the state.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday it would be dangerous to assume that the highly transmissible Omicron was the last variant to emerge and that the world was in the ‘end game’ of the pandemic. However, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was possible this year to exit the acute phase of the pandemic where Covid-19 constitutes a global health emergency if strategies and tools such as testing and vaccines are used in a comprehensive way. Speaking at the opening of Executive Board meeting, Tedros said, according to Reuters, since Omicron was first identified a little over nine weeks ago, more than 80 million cases had been reported to the UN agency, more than were reported in the whole of 2020. “Conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge,” he added.