Is COVID-19 peaking in India? Nation logs 2,71,202 new cases, positivity rate at 16.28%

Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in India continue to rise as the nation has recorded 2,71,202 virus cases on Sunday (January 16), which is 2,369 more than a day before. 

The country has also reported 314 deaths and 1,38,331 recoveries in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the active case in the country is 15,50,377. 

The daily positivity rate has reached 16.28 per cent which is a marginal improvement and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 13.69 per cent.

Is COVID-19 peaking in India?

The country has seen a sharp rise in the number of cases after the emergence of a highly transmissible Omicron variant. Experts have claimed that the nation is currently in the grip of the third wave. But the question here is: when India will witness a peak in COVID-19 cases?

Manindra Agrawal, who is a professor at IIT Kanpur recently said that India will witness a peak in COVID-19 infection cases around January 15. 

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Agrawal, who has been tracking the COVID-19 curve in the country using the SUTRA model, had also noted that the bigger cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata will report the maximum number of cases. As predicted, the mentioned cities have seen a spike in cases in the previous three-four days. 

Weighing in on when the cases will start to decline, Professor Agrawal told India-based news agency ANI on Monday, "We expect the decline also to be equally sharp and if the peak hits in January, then by the middle of March, the wave will be over." 

Omicron cases in India

7,743 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been detected so far in the country. A total of 70,24,48,838 samples were tested so far of which 16,65,404 samples were tested yesterday.

Here's the COVID-19 data of January 15:

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