Over 13K new Covid cases logged in 24 hrs across country
Amid a fresh surge in daily Covid-19 cases with India logging over 13,000 new infections for the first time in 113 days, the Government has asked the States and Union Territories to submit a “larger number” of samples for whole genome sequencing from districts and areas that are reporting maximum number of infections during seven days.
Delhi recorded 1,534 new Covid cases and 3 deaths on Saturday while the positivity rate stood at 7.71 per cent.
India logged a single-day rise of 13,216 new coronavirus infections taking the case tally to 4,32,83,793, while the active cases have increased to 68,108, according to data of Health Ministry.
With 3883 new cases on Saturday, Maharashtra logged the highest number of cases across the country in the last 24 hours. The State also reported two deaths during this period.
Since Saturday morning till now, 10 States and Union Territories — Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Gujarat — have logged over 1,000 cases.
According to sources in the Union Health Ministry, the direction was issued during Friday’s meeting by the INSACOG that reviewed the Covid-19 data to check the possibility of any new emerging variant or sub-variant, and ascertain the reasons behind the latest breakthrough.
“The idea behind asking States and Union Territories to send a larger number of samples is to keep a closer watch over the current circulating sub lineages of Omicron and its correlation to the current epidemiological picture,” an official from the Ministry said.
“Also, we want to see if we are missing any important clues related to newer sub-variants during routine sequencing through the sentinel surveillance,” he added.
“The last review meeting said there is no variant of concern in the country as of now. India now has BA.4 and BA.5 in addition to BA.2 with slightly higher transmissibility as compared with other Omicron sub lineages,” the official said.
The INSACOG is a joint initiative of the Department of Biotechnology under the ministries of science and technology, and health to carry out genome sequencing of a virus to understand how it spreads and evolves.
Thirty-two districts in India including 11 from Kerala and five from Maharashtra are reporting a weekly Covid positivity rate of more than 10 per cent while in 35 districts including 9 from Delhi, the weekly positivity rate is between 5 and 10 per cent, sources said.
The death toll has climbed to 5,24,840 with 23 new fatalities. The 23 new fatalities include 13 from Kerala, three from Maharashtra, two from Karnataka and one each from Delhi, Meghalaya, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
According to health experts, although there is a rise in cases, there is no increase in hospitalisation or deaths. Also, the increase is limited to a few districts The complacency among the people towards following Covid-appropriate behaviour along with mitigating the need of taking precautionary doses possibly has increased risk for vulnerable population. In addition, the increased mobility-- both within country and outside it---- due to summer holidays, easing of travel restrictions, and full-fledged opening up of economic activities have jointly triggered the possibility of spread among vulnerable individuals.