New Delhi: Amid a surge in Coronavirus cases across the country, health officials on Wednesday said Covid-19 in India is moving towards the endemic stage and the infections may keep rising for the next 10-12 days after which they will subside, news agency PTI reported. According to the officials, even though the cases are rising, hospitalisation is low and is expected to remain low.
The current surge in infections is being driven by XBB.1.16, a sub variant of Omicron. While Omicron and its sub-lineages continue to be the dominant variant in India, most of them have little or no significant transmissibility, disease severity or immune escape, officials said.
Notably, the prevalence of XBB.1.16 increased from 21.6 per cent in February this year to 35.8 per cent in March. However, no evidence of an increase in hospitalisation or mortality has been reported, officials added.
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Meanwhile, India has logged a single-day rise of 7,830 new coronavirus infections, the highest in 223 days, taking the active cases count to 40,215, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The country had recorded a single-day jump of 7,946 Covid-19 cases on September 1 last year.
According to health ministry data, the death toll due to the disease has increased to 5,31,016 with 16 new fatalities being reported – two each in Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and one each in Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, and five reported in Kerala.
The tally of Covid cases in the country stood at 4.47 crore, while the count of active cases now comprises 0.09 per cent of the total infections.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 4,42,04,771, taking the national Covid-19 recovery rate to 98.72 per cent.
According to the health ministry data, 220.66 crore doses of vaccines have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.