Coronavirus India Wrap: Infection spike restricted to Delhi, NCR; Kerala calls allegations on Covid data submission ‘condemnable’

Active cases currently stand at 11,860 and comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections. The recovery rate remained unchanged at 98.76 per cent and 928 recoveries were reported on Monday. The daily positivity rate was 0.31 per cent while the weekly positivity rate stood at 0.34 per cent.

Just as the country had come out of a wave of case spikes owing to the Omicron variant, the uptick in daily cases is once again ringing the alarm bells. Authorities are mulling the case situation in their respective states and bringing back restrictions. Till now, the sudden case spike is restricted to the national capital and areas surrounding it and has not be

Kerala govt rejects reports on submission of COVID data to Centre

The Kerala government on Tuesday rejected allegations that the state did not submit daily Covid-19 figures to the Centre and termed an ongoing campaign at the national level in this connection as “condemnable”, news agency PTI reported.

Noting that Kerala reporting Covid-19 data after a gap of five days has skewed India’s key monitoring indicators of the pandemic such as cases, deaths and positivity rate, the Centre had asked the state to provide updated data daily.

However, claiming that the state had submitted the COVID figures to the central government on a daily basis in the prescribed format without any fail, Health Minister Veena George said the digital evidences could not be covered up. She also expressed displeasure over the media getting hold of the copy of a letter sent by the union joint secretary before it reached the principal secretary of the state health department.

A look at Delhi

In Delhi, the number of new cases remained over 500 for two days in a row, with 501 new cases reported on Monday. The city has been seeing an increasing positivity rate as well — it was 7.72% on Monday. This is almost four times the number of cases that the city was reporting at the beginning of April. The pandemic is said to be under control when the positivity rate, which essentially tells you of the spread of the infection in an area, remains at 5% or less.

Officials said that last time the positivity rate was above seven per cent in the city on January 29 (7.4 per cent) and on January 28 (8.6 per cent). A crucial meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Wednesday is expected to consider the reimposition of fine for not wearing face masks within the city.

Delhi Health Minister cautions, says no need to panic

Satyendar Jain.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain has said that despite the sudden spike, this is not an alarming situation as the rate of hospitalisation is low, news agency PTI reported. He also said that the government is keeping a watch on the situation.

Jain underlined that it is necessary to wear face masks, even though the fine for not doing so had been withdrawn.

Uttar Pradesh, Haryana make masks mandatory in districts next to Delhi

While masks are still not mandatory in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments on Monday made it compulsory to mask up in the districts surrounding the national capital. The fine of not wearing a face mask was scarped in Delhi, UP and Haryana in the first week of April.

In UP, masks have been made mandatory in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Meerut, Bulandshahr and Baghpat. Most of the new infections have also been reported from two of these districts.

While 76 new cases were reported from Gautam Buddha Nagar, 33 were from Ghaziabad, 7 from Lucknow, 2 each from Meerut and Bulandshahr, and one from Baghpat on Sunday. These are also the districts with the highest number of active cases. Of the 695 active cases in Uttar Pradesh, Gautam Buddha Nagar has 280, Ghaziabad 113, Lucknow 41, Meerut 11, Bulandshahr 5, and Baghpat 2.

At a market in Haryana. (File)

In Haryana, masks will be made mandatory in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonipat and Jhajjar, Health Minister Anil Vij announced. Of the 238 new cases reported in the state on Monday, 198 were from Gurgaon and 22 from Faridabad.

Current spike not necessarily another wave of Covid-19

This sudden spike in new cases cannot be explained clearly right now. Anurag Agrawal, former director of Delhi-based Institute of Genetics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), said that the spike in Delhi is is consistent with what would be expected if people stopped wearing masks and began interacting more freely. This is happening as schools and offices have reopened, travel is back to normal and most businesses have begun operating at full capacity

This new surge has renewed fears of another Covid-19 wave hitting the country, but experts say that it is hard to predict anything about a fresh wave. The evolution of the virus is a completely random and unpredictable event. Read our full explainer on the recent uptick in infections and what it means here.

Daily new Covid-19 cases in India, and in Delhi and Haryana.

Experts weigh in amid fourth wave fears

A Covid-19 test in Punjab. (File photo)

Experts say that the current surge could be because of restrictions being lifted, and though masking in public places – especially crowded markets and enclosed spaces such as cinemas – is necessary, there is no need to panic.

“We are seeing a surge in India. It is only to be expected. Our team has been tracking these metrics for more than two years. We are all tired, but the virus is still there. Time to elevate your personal preventions, combat COVID with caution. Choose prudence over panic,” professor of epidemiology at University of Michigan’s School of Public Health Bhramar Mukherjee said in a tweet.

As per Delhi-based doctors, while the number of cases is on the rise, “hospitalisations are not”. Most of the affected people are reporting to outpatient clinics with fever, cough, sore throat, and head and body ache. “I do not think that this is a separate wave.