India saw a massive jump in Covid cases on Thursday as it recorded 18,000 new infections, pushing the active caseload to breach the one lakh mark for the first time in the last four months. The country has witnessed a jump of more than 4,000 cases in just 24 hours while death, too, is inching up gradually to touch 39.
As many as 13,827 patients recovered from the infection. The total active Covid cases crossed the one-lakh mark at 1,04,555. The total number of deaths in the country is now at 5,25,116. The country has witnessed a jump of more than 4,000 cases in just 24 hours. On Wednesday, India had logged 14,506 new Covid cases and 30 deaths. Active cases on Wednesday comprised 0.23 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.56 per cent, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
There are 43 districts that are recording a weekly positivity rate of 10 per cent or more. Kerala tops the list with 11 districts, followed by Mizoram (6) and Maharashtra (5).
The other states that have been witnessing a noticeable rise include Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Manipur, Mizoram, Goa, Karnataka and Puducherry. While there are 42 districts in India that are recording a positivity rate between 5 and 10 per cent, the 627 others are still below the 5 per cent-mark.
Fresh Covid-19 cases in India in the week ending Sunday surged to the highest in nearly four months with close to 80,000 new infections, up 62% from the previous week’s tally. Although deaths from the virus remained very low compared to previous outbreaks, at least 93 fatalities were reported in the country during the week, more than the combined toll in the previous two weeks (45 and 41).
INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium) officials said, “Omicron sub-lineages, mainly BA.2 and BA.2.38, and BA.4 and BA.5 in some parts of the country, were behind the current spike”. During this week, fresh cases rose in nearly all states and UTs. The highest numbers were reported from Maharashtra, where the weekly tally crossed the 25,000 mark (25,172), up 45 per cent from 17,380 in the preceding week. Kerala reported a similar spike of 42 per cent, with over 20,500 new cases.
The surge intensified in NCR cities, with weekly numbers more than doubling. Delhi reported 9,291 cases, a rise of 128 per cent from last week’s tally of 4,068 while Uttar Pradesh witnessed a 109 per cent surge, reporting 2,711 infections. Haryana’s tally rose 94 per cent, from India’s weekly Covid cases up 60 per cent to 80k, deaths low but rising.
Among States that reported more than 1,000 new infections during the week, the highest percentage rise was seen in Tamil Nadu — up 169 per cent, from 1,299 last week to 3,492 — and Bengal, where cases rose by 145 per cent from 663 to 1,621. In States where numbers were still relatively low, Assam saw a 4.8-fold increase in cases, Jharkhand 2.5-fold and Chhattisgarh 2.2-fold.