India reports single day rise of 2,151 new covid cases

New Delhi: India reported 2,151 new covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours with daily positivity rate at 1.51%, the union health ministry said on Wednesday. The country has recorded more than 44.8 million cases, and 530,848 deaths so far.

Covid cases have been increasing across the country with Karnataka reporting 806 active cases and Kerala 2877 active cases. Maharashtra has 2343 active cases, Gujarat 1976 cases, Delhi 671 cases, Tamil Nadu 660 active cases; and Himachal Pradesh 574 cases.

Scientists said that XBB.1.16 is the covid-19 variant responsible for present surge in covid cases. However, they said people in India have developed hybrid immunity due to vaccination and natural infection, and therefore, the present covid-19 variants will not cause hospitlaistaion and severity as it is mild in nature. The government has suggested people wear masks in crowded places and complete their vaccination doses if not done yet.

Active cases in India have climbed to 11,903. Around 4,41,66,925 people have recovered from the infection with the current recovery rate touching 98.78%.

The union health ministry has directed the state/UT governments to follow a risk assessment-based approach to prevent and contain the infection. The ministry has advised the state governments to examine the situation of covid-19 at micro level (district and sub-districts) and maintain focus on implementation of necessary measures for prompt and effective management of covid-19 duly ensuring effective compliance.

“The five-fold strategy, i.e., Test-Track Treat-Vaccination should be followed with continued focus on adequate & proactive testing as per guidelines, monitoring new and emerging clusters of new Covid-19 cases along with monitoring the trend of Influenza-like illness (ILI) & SARI cases in all health facilities or through dedicated fever clinics on a regular basis for detecting early warning signals of the spread of infection,” the health ministry stated as there are few states which are reporting higher number of cases indicating possible localized spread of infection.

The country has conducted over 1,42,947 tests in the last 24 hours taking the total trajectory of covid testing to 92.13 crore so far.

Under the covid vaccination drive, more than 220.65 crore vaccine doses have been administered to the people across the country so far. In the last 24 hours, around 11,336 vaccine doses were administered.