NEW DELHI: India is seeing a fresh surge in Covid-19 cases in some states - mainly Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Karnataka - but the spike seems to be localised.
According to Dr N K Arora, who heads the Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group of Immunisation (NTAGI), the 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 told TNIE. He said 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 Covid numbers was seen in Delhi and the NCR region in April when schools opened, and restrictions were lifted. “We can’t say that there is a wave,” he added.
According to the Union Health Ministry data, India on Monday logged 4,518 new coronavirus infections and nine deaths. The nine deaths were reported from Kerala (4), Uttar Pradesh (2) and one each from Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal.
As Covid cases saw a surge in some states, the Centre sent a letter to five states - Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu - and advised them to follow a five-fold strategy of test-track-treat-vaccination and follow appropriate Covid-19 behaviour.
The Union Health Ministry has said that these states are "reporting a higher contribution to India's cases."
Officials said that as INSACOG in its report had detected BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Covid-19 in India, they are studying whether the virus spread in some of the states is due to these two variants.
The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), in its report, confirmed the presence of Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5. Tamil Nadu has already detected BA.4, and BA.5 variants in 12 samples sent for genome sequencing out of 150.
They are also studying whether the two variants are causing severe symptoms and hospitalisation to the infected person. So far, most of the people detected with these two variants have recovered and showed mild symptoms. Also, it has been found that those infected in recent weeks were all vaccinated.