K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific advisor to India’s government has already declared that the third wave of Covid-19 was inevitable looking at the current surge in infections. With an abject lack of strong health infrastructure and people not taking precautions, it won’t be very surprising to witness India getting hit by the third wave of Coronavirus.
Covid-19 cases continue to rise unabated across India as the omicron spread rapidly, fueling speculation of a third wave of infections. Maharashtra added 11,877 COVID-19 cases on Sunday, a 29% increase from the previous day (9,170), while Karnataka saw a massive 241 percent increase in the number of reported COVID-19 cases. On Sunday, the state recorded 1,187 Covid cases. Delhi recorded 3,194 Covid-19 cases and one death on Sunday, while the positivity rate stood at 4.59%.
Maharashtra
Maharashtra has been recording a steady rise in cases for the past two weeks. The state recorded nine deaths on Sunday. Active cases rose to 42,024, while Mumbai’s count touched 29,819 – a 1,300% jump from December 20 (2,061). The Times of India reported that Mumbai had 503 hospitalizations on Sunday, 389 on Saturday and 497 on Friday. Out of 503 hospitals, 56 patients had to be started on oxygen support.
Mumbai recorded 7,792 infections on Sunday, a 26% increase over Saturday’s 6,186 cases. Meanwhile, the Omicron tally in Maha stands at 510 in the state with 50 new infections. Mumbai and Thane reported one new case each, and Pune confirmed 36 cases, with Pimpri-Chinchwad reporting eight.
Karnataka
Karnataka reported 1,187 Covid cases on Sunday, taking the total number of active cases in the state to 10,292, of which 8,671 are in Bengaluru urban district alone. Karnataka also reported six deaths, three from Bengaluru Urban and one each from Dakshina Kannada, Tumakuru and Uttara Kannada. The spike in cases was driven by Bengaluru Urban, which contributed to 923 infections and three deaths. Fresh cases were also reported in other districts, including 63 in Dakshina Kannada, 54 in Udupi, 20 in Mysuru, 12 each in Belagavi, Tumakuru and Kodagu and 10 in Mandya. The state’s positivity rate for the day stood at 1.08 per cent and the case fatality rate was 0.5 per cent. The state government is urging residents to ensure that the COVID protocol is followed in public places including malls, marriage halls etc.
Delhi
According to official data, in the first two days of January, Delhi has recorded more coronavirus cases than the cases reported between August and November. On Monday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged residents not to panic and assured them that there were enough oxygen beds as hospitalizations were few. Delhi recorded 3,194 Covid-19 cases and one death on Sunday, while the positivity rate stood at 4.59%. The national capital has recorded 5,910 Covid-19 cases since January 1.
Sunday saw the highest single-day increase in Covid cases since May 20 and was 17 per cent higher than the 2,716 infections reported a day earlier. Experts believe that a significant number of the new cases have been caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant. “A new version fuels a new wave of infections. We observed that the delta variant dominated during the second wave and accounted for 70 per cent of the total cases,” Dr Jugal Kishor, head of the Department of Community Medicine, Safdarjung Hospital.
Gujarat
Gujarat on Sunday reported 968 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally of infections to 8,33,769. With one death in Valsad district, the COVID-19 death toll rose to 10,120. On Saturday, Gujarat reported 1,069 cases, the highest in the last seven months. 396 new cases were reported in Ahmedabad city. On Saturday, 23 new cases of the Omicron variant were reported, along with 11 recoveries.