Maharashtra on Monday evening, 27 December, reported 26 new cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, taking the state tally to 167, news agency PTI reported citing the Health Department.
Meanwhile, India reported 6,531 new coronavirus cases and 315 deaths, while Goa reported its first Omicron case.
Currently, there are over 75,841 active cases in the country, with the most being in Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane informed in a tweet that an eight-year-old boy, who arrived in Goa from the UK on 17 December, was found infected with the new coronavirus variant.
Meanwhile, the number of Omicron cases has risen to 578, with the most (142) being present in Delhi, according to the latest data released by the health ministry.
Among cities, Mumbai, with 922, reported the most number of cases on Sunday, which was the city's highest tally in seven months. Mumbai was followed by Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi, Bengaluru Urban, Kolkata and Chennai. We take a detailed look at the case loads across different cities:
Mumbai
Mumbai reported 922 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, 26 December, according to latest data released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). This was the city's highest count in seven months. The active case load in the city stands at 4,295.
The city also reported 31 new cases of the Omicron variant, taking the total tally of Omicron in the state to 141, out of which 42 have been discharged or have recovered or migrated.
On Friday, 24 December, the BMC had banned New Year celebrations across the city to keep the rising numbers of coronavirus cases in check.
Thiruvananthapuram
With 374, Thiruvananthapuram reported the most number of new cases in Kerala, followed by Ernakulam (292).
Meanwhile, the state health minister Veena George said on Sunday that 19 new cases of Omicron were reported in the state, taking the overall tally to 57.
Of those 19 cases, 11 were detected in Ernakulam, six in Thiruvananthapuram and one each in Thrissur and Kannur.
A total of 1,824 new coronavirus cases were reported in the state as of Sunday, 26 December, 2 pm, taking the total tally of active cases to 22,691, according to the official government data.
On Monday, 27 December, the fourth Health Index by NITI Aayog named Kerala the top state in overall health performance among larger states.
Delhi
On Sunday, Delhi reported 290 new cases of COVID-19. As of Sunday, the national capital had 1,103 active cases.
Delhi also has 142 cases of Omicron, the most in the country, out of which 23 have been discharged or have recovered or migrated, the health ministry said in a bulletin.
Owing to the rising number of cases, the Delhi government on Sunday announced a night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am, applicable from Monday, 27 December.
Bengaluru Urban
Bengaluru Urban in Karnataka reported 248 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total number of active cases in the city reaching 6,048.
The state has a total of 7,418 cases of COVID-19, out of which 31 are of the Omicron variant.
Kolkata
Kolkata reported 219 new cases, which was the highest compared to other districts in the state, and three deaths.
Meanwhile, West Bengal reported 544 new cases of COVID-19 and currently has six cases of Omicron.
Chennai
Chennai reported 165 new cases as of Saturday, 25 December. The city has 1,326 active cases, while the state has 6,629 active cases as per the health ministry data.
Meanwhile, J Radhakrishnan, Tamil Nadu health secretary, was quoted as saying by ANI:
"In Chennai, we are now doing 20,000 tests instead of 10,000. We're following the containment guidelines and are telling the passengers coming from non-high-risk countries to be in-home quarantine," he said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian said on Monday that of the total 34 Omicron patients in the state so far, 16 were under treatment & 18 had been discharged.
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