Indications of COVID cases plateauing in India: Health ministry

Omicron is now the dominant COVID variant in India, and there are early indications of cases plateauing in the nation, the health ministry informed on Thursday.

As many as 2,86,384 people tested positive for coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, and there were 573 deaths.

Only the top 10 states are contributing to 77 per cent of total active cases in the country, the ministry told reporters, adding that more than 90 per cent of cases are in home isolation with mild to moderate severity and there are a lower number of cases needing oxygen and ICU beds.

“The percentage of the highly transmissible Omicron variant increased rapidly in December and January and the prevalence of the Omicron subvariant called BA.2 is increasing in our community,” it said.

According to the government, India’s wide vaccination coverage is behind the fall in fatality rate. “Active case numbers and corresponding deaths are much lower in this wave,” the ministry said.

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The government also reported that 11 states have more than 50,000 active cases, and 14 states have between 10,000 and 50,000 active cases. As many as 551 districts are reporting a positivity rate of over 5 per cent.

“We are not seeing only Omicron cases. Clinical severity and hospitalisation can be caused by Delta as well,” Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control, was quoted as saying in an NDTV report, highlighting that Odisha, West Bengal and Maharashtra are still showing cases of the Delta variant. Dr Singh added that people who are unvaccinated and have comorbidities “are dying in Delhi” and that these two groups comprise 64 per cent of total COVID deaths.

Vaccinating more people is the most important step in fighting the virus, Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, has stressed. He reportedly cautioned people with comorbidities to be careful because the outcome of a COVID infection is not as good in patients who have comorbidities.