NEW DELHI: India recorded a sharp hike in daily Covid-19 cases at 10,158, the highest in 222 days, as compared to the previous day on Thursday.
According to the union health ministry data, 19 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours.
Maharashtra, where reportedly XBB.1.16 sub-variant was first detected, reported nine deaths, followed by two deaths in Gujarat. One death each was reported in Delhi, Kerala, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu. Kerala also reported four reconciled deaths.
It was the first time in over 200 days that India has reported over 10,000 cases. The last time over 10,000 cases was reported was on August 31, 2022.
Both Maharashtra and Delhi logged in over 1,000 Covid-19 cases. While Maharashtra recorded over 1,000 cases after September 9, Delhi last registered 1,000 cases on August 19.
According to Krishna Prasad N C, a Covid data analyst, Rajasthan (87%), Kerala (81 %), Karnataka (33%), Maharashtra (21 %), Chhattisgarh (23%), Punjab (22%), and Goa (14%) have reported a high number of Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
Dr Pragya Yadav, scientist and group leader of Maximum Containment Laboratory at NIV, Pune, said, “The Covid-19 cases are increasing. The reason is that the virus is changing, and people's immunity is fading.”
She added that apart from India, XBB.1.16 – a recombinant variant - is driving a surge in other countries also. “We have seen 1,000 variants of Omicron, and the virus is constantly mutating,” said Yadav, who was awarded for her work in developing the Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin.
XBB.1.16 has an effective reproductive number (Re) that is 1.27- and 1.17-times higher than the parental XBB.1 and XBB.1.5, respectively, she said, adding that this shows that XBB.1.16 will spread worldwide shortly also.
“Though cases are increasing, I don’t think the situation will escalate. So far, the positivity rate is low. We have seen that world over cases see a spike during February-March. India is prepared as we have the experience of battling Covid-19 in the last three years,” she added.
She said people need to be alert and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour which is the best way not to get the infection. “I see a kind of hesitancy in people wearing masks now. This was not so earlier,” Dr Yadav told this paper.
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According to the ministry, the daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.42 percent, while the weekly positivity rate was 4.02 percent. The active cases now constitute 0.10 percent of the total infections.
The national Covid-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.71 percent, the ministry said, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 percent.
