India reports 12,193 fresh COVID-19 cases in span of 24 hours

The Union health ministry said on Saturday that India has recorded 12,193 fresh COVID-19 cases in a span of 24 hours, with the number of active cases going up to 67,556. 

According to the ministry's data updated at 8 am, the death toll due to the viral disease has climbed to 5,31,300 with 42 more fatalities, including 10 reconciled by Kerala.

The tally of Covid cases was recorded at 4,48,81,877. The active cases account for 0.15 per cent of the total caseload, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.66 per cent, according to the health ministry's website.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has gone up to 4,42,83,021, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of anti-Covid vaccines have so far been administered to people across the country.

XBB.1.16 variant driving Maha surge

Maharashtra on Friday reported 993 COVID-19 cases and five deaths, which took the tally to 81,60,499 and the toll to 1,48,497, a health official said.

A state health department bulletin said the XBB.1.16 is the dominant variant of Omicron that was driving the case surge in the state. So far, 681 cases caused by this variant have been detected, and five persons have succumbed.

The addition to the tally was lower than the 1,113 recorded on Thursday, which also saw three fatalities, he pointed out.

Mumbai and Pune recorded two deaths each while the fifth fatality was in Nagpur, he said, adding that Mumbai accounted for 226 of the new cases in the state.

States asked to keep strict vigil

Amid rising cases of Covid, the Centre on Friday asked eight states including Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to maintain a strict watch and take preemptive action in any area of concern to control any emerging spread of infection.
 
Underlining that Covid is still not over, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in a letter to Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Haryana and Delhi urged them to remain cautious against laxity at any level saying that may nullify the gains made in pandemic management so far.

The country has been witnessing a consistent rise in COVID-19 cases since March, with 10,262 cases reported in the week ending April 20. A rise in positivity rate has also been noted across the country, with 5.5 per cent positivity reported in the week ending April 19 against 4.7 per cent positivity reported in the previous week, Bhushan said.

While the rates of hospitalization and deaths due to COVID-19 have remained low, states or districts reporting higher number of cases may indicate a possible localized spread of infection thus necessitating a closer look at these states or districts (high daily cases and/or high-test positivity rates) and the need to institute requisite public health measures to control and contain such surges in the initial stages, he said.

"It is also critical to ensure timely and regular updating of data to assist in accurate monitoring of the situation. It is essential that the State must maintain a strict watch and take preemptive action if required in any area of concern to control any emerging spread of infection. Regular monitoring and follow-up action are crucial," Bhushan said.

While the five-fold strategy for control of the pandemic - Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour - remains the time-tested approach, it is critical for the state health departments to institute prompt and effective public health measures with a key focus on the aspects such as strengthening Covid surveillance in all districts and monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and SARI cases in all sentinel surveillance sites on a regular basis and ensure its reporting through IDSP-IHIP network, he said.

He also urged them to focus on maintaining adequate levels of testing (especially in emerging hotspots, ILI and SARI cases) in all the districts while maintaining the recommended share of RT-PCR and Antigen tests. The focus should be in areas reporting high case positivity and new clusters of cases, Bhushan said and asked them to increase the number of Covid-positive samples sent for Whole Genomic Sequencing through the INSACOG network of laboratories, especially from any new clusters of cases detected in the community.

States have also been asked to ensure operational readiness and adequate strengthening of hospital infrastructure, especially at the sub-district levels in terms of availability of essential drugs and equipment and adequately trained manpower. Adequate financial support has already been provided to all states under various financial packages and PM-ABHIM.