NEW DELHI: India is seeing a fresh surge in Covid-19 cases in some states — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka — but the spike seems to be localised. According to Dr NK Arora, who heads the Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group of Immunisation, people who were not tested positive during the third wave propelled by the Omicron variant, are now getting the infection.
“The spike looks more like a localised spread that was seen earlier in Delhi in April. Most people getting infected now are over-protected, living in a high-rise, and are relatively better-off,” he said, adding that even children testing positive for Covid-19 belong to high-end better-off schools.
“People who were relatively well-protected during the third wave are now getting Covid,” he added. He said a similar spike in cases was seen in Delhi and the NCR region in April when schools had opened and restrictions were lifted. “We can’t say that there is a wave,” he added.
Health Ministry officials said as INSACOG in its report had detected BA.4 and BA.5 variants in India, they are studying if the virus spread in some states is due to these variants. Tamil Nadu has already detected these variants in 12 samples out of 150 sent for genome sequencing.
ICMR guidelines on diabetes management
New Delhi: At a time when the pandemic has affected a large number of people with diabetes, the Indian Council of Medical Research on Monday released a guidance document for the management of Type 1 diabetes. The document reported narrowing of urban-rural gap in the disease burden and highlighted that Type 1 diabetes is rising among the younger population. The incidence of Type 1 diabetes in India is 4.9 cases in one lakh population per year. Type 2 diabetes is also becoming prevalent in the age group of 25-34 years in both urban and rural areas, the document said. Every sixth person with diabetes in the world is an Indian. ENS