Masks come off, rallies begin as India's COVID-19 patient load falls

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India reported its lowest tally of active COVID-19 cases in 18 months on Monday, but a sharp drop in the use of protective face masks is causing concern after a rise in the number of infections with the Omicron variant. Cases have come down sharply since then, with an active COVID-19 total of 91,456 as of early Monday, the lowest in 561 days, according to the Health Ministry. But cases of the Omicron variant have risen to at least 36 in India, and accounted for 3% of the virus sequences analysed in the country in the past two weeks, with Delta accounting for the rest. 'The falling graph of mask use could cost us,' top Indian health official Vinod Kumar Paul told a recent news briefing.