India's active COVID caseload crosses 40k, highest in last 7 months

New Delhi: As hospitals across India finished the two-day mock drill on COVID-19 preparedness, the number of active infection cases due to coronavirus cases climbed up to 40,215 in the last 24 hours.

In addition to this, 16 new fatalities are reported nationwide, bringing the total death toll to 5,31,016 since the onset of the pandemic. The mortalities have taken place: two each in Delhi, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh; one each in Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh; and five reconciled in Kerala.

After nearly seven months, India had the most new COVID-19 cases with 7,830. Experts are saying that the highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 variant XBB.1.16 is potentially behind the recent surge in cases.

Meanwhile, as the active caseload surpasses the 40,000-plus mark, in contrast, merely 441 doses of vaccines were administered in the last twenty-four hours. India has so far administered 220.66 crore total vaccine doses (95.21 crore second doses and 22.87 crore precaution doses) of the COVID-19 vaccine as part of the immunisation campaign.

4,692 recoveries have been recorded in the last twenty-four hours, bringing the total recoveries since the outbreak of the pandemic to 4,42,04,771. The Union Health Ministry also reported that the number of active cases is currently 0.09 per cent of total infections and that the national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 98.72 per cent.

As the daily positivity rate inches up to 3.65 per cent and weekly positivity 3.83 per cent, ETHealthworld in an exclusive conversation with Dr Sharad Kumar Agarwal, President, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) tried to understand the latest spike in COVID-19 infections across the country.

Dr Agarwal said the recent XBB.1.16 is a highly transmissible strain in comparison to the other strains of the novel coronavirus. People need not panic while at the same time be vigilant.

"The COVID story is still not over, and people should keep the vigil. As a country, we are in a better situation than we were in 2020 in terms of the number of beds and well-functioning oxygen plants. This infection is not that serious, despite its great infectivity in comparison to the other strain, and the mortality and morbidity are lower," he added.

When asked if the cases are underreported due to lower levels of testing, Dr Agarwal elaborated that, despite testing facilities being available across the country, "if people themselves are not going to come forward, what can authorities do about it?" He added that ultimately it is the responsibility of citizens to be aware of the situation and show sensitivity.

A total of 92.32 crore COVID-19 tests have been conducted so far, including 2,14,242 tests in the last 24 hours. Dr Agarwal went on to say, "People should not panic and must follow COVID-appropriate behaviour, which is severely missing today. When we say not to panic, we also say that we should be vigilant. There is a distinction to be made between not panicking and being completely free."

The IMA had already outlined several safety measures that people should take. They include frequently washing hands, donning masks, particularly in busy areas, coughing into a bent elbow or tissue, and, wherever feasible, avoiding crowded areas and inadequately ventilated settings.