New Delhi, Dec 29 (IANS): The highly transmissible Covid variant Omicron tally has climbed to 781 in India out of which 241 have been discharged. The national capital has the highest cases of the variant at 238, followed by Maharashtra at 167 cases so far.

The Union health ministry on Wednesday morning said that the Omicron infection has so far spread into 21 states and union territories. Out of the 238 Omicron cases detected in Delhi, 57 of them have been discharged. According to the Ministry data, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal have reported Omicron cases in two-digit figures.

Delhi has also seen a major jump in the daily Covid caseload as the infection rate has reached 0.89 per cent. Delhi on Tuesday reported 496 fresh Covid cases, the highest single-day rise after June 4 when the tally was also 523 and one Covid death in the last 24 hours, as per the Health Department bulletin.

The rapid spread of Omicron infection has contributed to the total tally of Covid infection. India's overall Covid cases tally crossed the 9000-mark on Wednesday and currently stands at 9,195 cases. However, the over tally has been around 7,000 in the last week.

The World Health Organisation in its weekly epidemiological update has warned that the risk posed by the Omicron variant is still 'very high'. Omicron is behind rapid virus spikes in several countries, including those where it has already overtaken the previous dominant Delta variant, said the global health body in its weekly bulletin.