India reported 13,154 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, with 961 of them confirmed to be of the Omicron variant. This is the first time in 33 days that the country has reported over 10,000 cases in a day. Union Health Ministry officials expressed concern, in a weekly health briefing here, on the “sudden rise” in cases in several cities.
Officials singled out six states: Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarat as of particular concern given the rise in test positivity and the number of weekly cases. Kerala and Maharashtra however continued to be responsible for nearly half the covid cases.
They however refrained from describing the spurt in cases as the “third wave” with NITI Ayog Member, VK Paul saying that India was mirroring the global spurt being led by the United States, United Kingdom, France and Spain. “The present R-value (reproduction value) in India is 1.22 which means cases are increasing and not shrinking. Deaths are stable in India as of now which is reassuring. It could be part of the global rise in cases pushed by Omicron, we believe,” he said at the briefing.
The uptick in Maharashtra’s Covid-19 cases continued with the State reporting 5,368 new cases on Thursday as the State’s active case tally jumped to 18,217. 22 deaths pushed the cumulative tally to 1,41,518. The number of Omicron infections shot up as well, with 198 new cases of the new Covid-19 variant taking the total Omicron tally to 450.
Kerala recorded 2,423 fresh cases of Covid 19 on Thursday even as the government called for more caution and heightened surveillance against the Omicron variant of the corona virus.
Highlighting the threat posed by Omicron, Health Minister Veena George said the large geriatric population in the state and those with co morbidities could lead to a spike in hospitalisations and deaths. “Though vaccination is an important element in the fight against Omicron, the number of breakthrough infections and re infections poses a risk. In this context, it is important to observe Covid protocols strictly.”
In the capital, 1,313 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, the highest in seven months, as per a bulletin released by the Delhi government on Thursday. This is a 42.2% increase from 923 fresh cases reported on Wednesday.
The test positive rate (TPR) also increased to 1.73% on Thursday. There was no new COVID-19-related death in the last 24 hours. Delhi’s Health Minister said that there was “community spread” of the Omicron variant here as nearly half the samples analysed were of the variant.
Andhra Pradesh reported one more death due to COVID-19 and 130 infections in the 24 hours ending Thursday morning. The test positivity rate of the 33,188 samples tested in the past day was 0.39% and that of the total 3.129 crore samples tested so far was 6.64%.
Karnataka reported more than 500 cases on a second consecutive day. The number of new cases shot up from 566 on Wednesday to 707 on Thursday, taking the total to 30,06,505. Bengaluru Urban contributed nearly 80% of the day’s caseload with 565 cases. On Wednesday, Bengaluru Urban had reported 400 cases.
(With inputs from bureaus)
