Nagpur: In a 15-fold increase, the number of Covid-19 cases in Nagpur district surged to 46 on Monday, up from just three at the start of March. The day saw five new cases from 37 tests, with another spike expected in the coming days, according to a report in a local English daily.
The report also revealed that ten new patients were fully vaccinated but had to be admitted as they were symptomatic. Few new patients have required hospitalization since the third wave in January last year. The district’s Covid-19 death toll has remained at 10,358 since October last year.
The last Covid-19 victim was a 3-month-old severely ill girl on October 24, 2022. The district recorded only 10 cases in January and seven in February. This month, the tally has reached 76 with no deaths.
The report further said that among the new patients, two cases are of the new XBB1.16 recombinant variant. Two women, aged 75 and 84, from Jaripatka, tested positive for the Omicron subvariant, which is behind the latest surge in different states. The women had tested Covid positive on March 22 and 23. The 75-year-old was discharged from a private hospital. The Omicron sublineage has been designated as a variant of concern (VoC) by INSACOG, as it is highly contagious.
In Akola, 15 patients are under treatment, with five hospitalized. In Amravati, six patients are admitted out of the total 26 active cases there. Updates from other districts were not available. The National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, reported the two VoC cases, which came as a surprise to local health authorities.
Last year, the public health department had ordered all labs in Vidarbha to send their samples to NEERI, a designated INSACOG lab for the entire northeastern region of Maharashtra. As per official data, 87 of the 329 RT-PCR samples from Vidarbha were sent for genome sequencing since January. However, the designated lab NEERI received just two over the last three months. Besides NEERI, AIIMS Nagpur has a genome sequencing facility, but it is a non-INSACOG lab. Reporting by INSACOG labs is considered valid for the purpose of framing health policies and alerting the government on new variants.
Officials have said that although the VoC is accelerating, it only causes mild disease like cough, cold, and fever.
Meanwhile, India witnessed 1,573 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, while the active cases have increased to 10,981, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on March 28.
Pointing to a steady spread of Covid-19 infections in the country, the latest government data shows that the number of districts with a weekly test positivity rate (TPR) of 10% or more has increased to 32 across 14 states and UTs, a 3. 5-fold rise in two weeks. TPR is the percentage of total samples.
220.65 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.The case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.19 per cent. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,41,65,703, the data stated.
The active cases now comprise 0.02 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid recovery rate has been recorded at 98.79 per cent. The total tally of Covid cases was recorded at 4.47 crore (4,47,07, 525), the ministry said.
The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 1.30 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 1.47 per cent. The death toll has increased to 5,30,841 with four deaths reconciled by Kerala, data updated at 8 am stated.
