India registered the fastest ever surge in weekly COVID-19 cases thus far, with a six-fold rise in cases in the week ending Sunday, as the third wave of the pandemic driven by the Omicron variant swept the country.

The country recorded over 7.8 lakh cases from January 3-9, which was more than six times higher than the previous week’s tally of around 1.3 lakh. The previous week, from December 27-January 2, had also logged a 2.8-fold increase in cases. During the second wave, a corresponding surge in weekly infection numbers from 1.3 lakh to around 7.8 lakh was noted in a span of about five weeks.

On Sunday, the country registered 1,79,902 new infections till late at night, with data from Tripura still awaited. This represented a 13% increase over the previous day’s count of 1,59,583 cases… (ET Healthworld – TNN, January 10, 2022)