National Covid count soars 44% to 13,155 in a day, doubles at record pace

No evidence yet to link Omicron to surge in cases

- Amit Bhattacharya

India reported over 13,000 fr-esh cases of Covid on Wed-nesday, registering a sharp rise of 44% over the previous day’s tally. Daily cases have more than doubled in just two days at a growth rate faster than ever seen during the pandemic in the country.

By late Wednesday night, India had recorded 13,155 cases during the day, with data from two states yet to come in. The tally on Tuesday was 9,155, an increase of about 47% over the previous day’s numbers (6,242), as per TOI’s Covid database.

On each of the last two days, cases have risen by over 40%. Such high rates of growth over two successive days are unprecedented, although cases have jumped by a higher percentage on Tuesdays following a customary dip on Mondays due to lower testing over weekends.

In the second wave, the highest growth rates (over two successive days) were recorded on March 31 and April 1, when cases spiked by 35% and 13.5% respectively. The growth rates were much lower in the first wave.