6-fold increase in cases in 7 days, with 37,379 new cases, 124 deaths
Covid positivity rates are shooting up, caseload spiking, and authorities preparing for a Covid-19 spread far worse than the second wave that hit the country last year in March. India on Tuesday recorded 37,379 new cases and 124 fatalities in 24 hours.
This is the highest case number for a day since September 2021. India reported just 6,358 cases a week earlier on December 28. The six-fold jump in seven days points to grim scenario building up.
Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal account for nearly 80 per cent of the cases, but other States are fast catching up. During the last 24 hours, Delhi recorded 5,481 cases, Maharashtra 18,466 cases and Bengal 9,073. Karnataka logged 2,479 new cases and positivity rate shot up to 2.5 per cent while four people succumbed to the virus.
Delhi reported 5,481 new cases and three more deaths on Tuesday with positivity rate leaping to 8.37 per cent. The city now has 14,889 active cases and 168 people on oxygen support. At least 14 patients are on the ventilator support.
Alarmingly, over 81 per cent of the total samples sequenced over the last two days were found to have the Omicron variant. In other words, of the 187 samples sequenced during the last 48 hours, 152 were cases of Omicron infection, as per the data shared by the Delhi Government.
The Delhi Government has directed private hospitals and nursing homes with 50 beds or more to reserve at least 40 per cent of their total beds for Covid patients.
The Covid-19 situation worsened in Mumbai on Tuesday, as a staggering 10,860 new positive cases were reported from various parts of the metropolis. The 10,860 Covid-19 cases in Mumbai were among 18,466 new cases reported from various parts of the State. With the 18,466 fresh cases, the total number of Covid-19 cases went up from 67,12,028 cases to 67,30494.
Simultaneously, 75 Omicron cases were reported from various parts of the State taking the total number of Omicron cases detected in the State to 653.
Of the 75 Omicron cases, Mumbai accounted for a maximum of 40 cases, followed by nine cases in Thane, eight cases in Pune, five cases in Panvel, three cases each from Kolhapur and Nagpur, two cases from Pimpri-Chinchwad and one case each from Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Ulhasnagar, Satara, Amravati and Navi Mumbai.
As 4,588 patients were discharged from the hospitals across the State after full recovery, the total number of people discharged from the hospitals since the second week of March last year increased from 65,14,358 cases to 65,18,916. The recovery rate in the State dropped from 97.05 per cent to 96.86 per cent.
The number of “active cases” in the State increased from 52,422 cases to 63,308. The fatality rate in the State stood static at 2.1 per cent.
Mumbai accounted for a maximum of 47,476 active cases, while there were 7953 active cases in Thane. There were 4202 active cases in Pune, followed by Palghar (1605), Raigad (1235), Nashik (998), Nagpur (526), and Satara (386) and Ahmednagar (380).
Of the 6,95,09,260 +samples sent to various laboratories across the State so far, 67,30,494 have tested positive (9.68 per cent) for COVID-19 until Tuesday.
Currently, 3,98888,391 people are in home quarantine while 1,110 people are in institutional quarantine.
Meanwhile, the State recorded 75cases of Omicron, taking the total number of new Covid-19 variant cases to 578 cases. All patients have been reported by the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
West Bengal on Tuesday reported as many as 9,073 Covid-19 cases, highest-ever single day rise, the State health department notified. There are as many as 25,475 active cases in the state.
In India, the Omicron variant has infected 1,892 people in the country to date, according to the government’s data. Of the 1,892 Covid patients, 766 have been discharged. Maharashtra and Delhi remain the leading contributors with 568 and 382 infections, respectively. Kerala, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu all feature in the top 10 most-hit States due to the variant and have over 100 infections recorded so far. Telangana, Karnataka, Haryana and Odisha are other States in the top 10 list in India, according to the health ministry’s bulletin.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 3.24% while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.05%, according to the health ministry. The number of people who have recovered from the disease surged to 3,43,06,414, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.38%, the health ministry said.
The cumulative Covid vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 146.61 crore with more than 98 lakh shots being administered on Monday till 10.15 pm.
The State of Maharashtra, which is home to India’s financial hub Mumbai, has so far detected 568 cases of the Omicron variant while the Capital territory of Delhi reported 382 cases. Together, they account for around half of all cases in India attributed to the new heavily mutated strain.
Scientists have identified a new strain of the Covid-19 causing virus in Southern France. Known as ‘IHU’, the B.1.640.2 variant has been reported by researchers at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection in at least 12 cases, and has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon. However, the researchers noted that it is too early to speculate on how this variant behaves as far as infection and protection from vaccines is concerned.