Govt holds Covid meet; no cause for alarm, say experts

With some regions in the country, particularly Kerala, reporting a slight surge in Covid-19 infections at a time when 20 cases of the JN.1 sub-variant have been found across India, the Union health minister on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting to review the overall Covid preparedness in the country, according to an official statement.

- Rhythma Kaul

 

Experts, however, stressed that so far there have been no reports of rise in hospitalisations or cases of Covid-related pneumonia, and deaths related to the viral disease remain low, despite a very minor uptick being caused by infections among those with several comorbidities.

“Union minister of health and family welfare today chaired a high-level meeting to review the Covid-19 situation in India and preparedness of public health system for surveillance, containment and management of Covid-19 in view of the recent spike in cases of Covid-19 in some states...,” according to a health ministry statement.

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya directed states to remain alert but not panic, as cases have started rising in the country again after a hiatus of several months.

On average, 344 new infections of Covid-19 were reported every day in the past week in the country, according to government data tabulated by HT. A week ago, this number was 165, and it was 79 the week before that. The last time the case rate (as the seven-day average of cases is known) was this high was on June 1 this year when there was a minor surge due to the XBB.1.16 Omicron variant.

For context to these numbers, the three full-blown waves of Covid-19 peaked at weekly averages of 93,617 (mid September 2020), 391,819 (early May 2021), and 312,180 (end of January 2022).