Coronavirus in India top updates today: Ahead of the third anniversary of the national lockdown, India is witnessing a steady surge of fresh Covid infections. In the last 15 days, the number of cases has doubled, latest data show. Here are top five pandemic updates that you need to know:
1: The health ministry’s morning bulletin says that 918 new Covid-19 cases were registered across India in the last 24 hours. The official figures suggest that four people died due to Covid-related complications. Two deaths were reported from Rajasthan while one fatality was reported from Karnataka. Kerala also added a Covid death as it reconciled old data.
2: The number of active cases has gone up to 6,350, the health data say. The official records show that India registered a daily positivity rate of 2.08 per cent on Monday.
3: Meanwhile, in other developments, latest INSACOG numbers show that the new Covid variant – XBB1.16 has spread to as many as eight states across India. While the count of new samples may be less than 100, the data shows the extent of spread of the XBB1.16 variant. The INSACOG figures say that a maximum number of XBB1.16 cases have been detected from Karnataka followed by Maharashtra. National Capital Delhi, Gujarat, Odisha and Himachal Pradesh have also reported the XBB1.16 cases.
4: The XBB1.16 variant was first detected in India back in January this year. While the first month of 2023 saw two positive samples of XBB1.16 variant, in February, the numbers increased to 59. In March, till 18th, India has already seen 15 positive cases of XBB1.16 variants.
5: Many experts feel that XBB1.16 may be the reason behind the latest surge in Covid cases that the country is witnessing this month. Former AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria, who had led the national Covid task force, said the rise in Covid cases seems to be driven by the XBB 1.16 variant while the influenza cases are because of H3N2.
“For both of this, following Covid-appropriate behaviour can help to contain the spread of infection. And also most of the cases are not severe; so there is no need to panic as of now,” the chairman, Institute of Internal Medicine, Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Director-Medical Education at Medanta and former AIIMS director said.
(With inputs from PTI)