India's daily Covid-19 cases have jumped to 117,100 in the last 24 hours, a five-fold increase in a week and on course to overtake its previous infection peak as the fast-spreading Omicron variant replaces Delta in cities.

Government officials have privately said they are working under the assumption that daily infections will surpass the record of more than 414,000 set in May, given what has happened in countries such as the United States where daily cases recently rose past one million.

"We will clearly surpass our record shortly and reach a new peak by early February," MD Gupte, a former director of the state-run National Institute of Epidemiology and an immunisation adviser to the government, told Reuters.

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