New Delhi: Health experts have not yet issued any alert regarding the fourth wave of COVID, but the increase in cases across the country is unmistakable. With over 15,700 cases, the number of new patients in India has almost doubled over the last week.
The increase was seen about three weeks ago after a gradual decline in cases over 11 weeks. Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh reported the maximum number of cases, with the National Capital Region accounting for the majority of cases. The spike in Covid cases was first noticed only in these states. Last week, nine more states, including Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Punjab and Karnataka, reported a significant increase in cases.
In the last week, the national capital saw over 6,300 cases, almost three times those reported a week ago. Government sources said last week that Omicron variants of the coronavirus and its sub-types are increasing rapidly in Delhi. The samples showed the presence of BA.2.12.1 and eight other subtypes of Omicron. The conclusions were drawn after studying the genome sequencing of the samples.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in February that the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron is more transmissible than the BA.1 strain. However, there was no reason for the alert, as it was no more severe than the original stress.
Though the cases have increased, the deaths are still under control and there has been no significant increase in COVID related deaths. Apart from Kerala (which is only sending data to the Centre), India recorded 27 deaths last week, the same as last week.
After reporting 996 cases last week, Maharashtra saw a 48% increase in cases compared to the previous week, while Karnataka and Bengal registered a growth of 71% and 66% respectively.
The number of active cases was recorded at 15,873 till Sunday, April 24, while the number of reported Covid cases increased by 44 to 5,22,193 in 24 hours. The total vaccination numbers were over 187 crores.
On Monday, 25 April, India reported 2,541 new COVID-19 patients, taking the number of active cases to 16,522. The daily positivity rate is 0.84%.
first published:April 25, 2022, 10:55 am