NEW DELHI: While bucking a direct question on whether the rising Covid cases in India are a sign of the beginning of the third wave of the pandemic, top authorities on Thursday declared that the uptick in cases here are part of the global upsurge, likely fuelled by the Omicron variant.
Officials, during a press briefing by the Union Health Ministry on Covid status, also said that the rise in the cases could go on to become “significant” and may not be mild necessarily, as is being speculated.
India on Thursday noted 13,154 new Covid cases in a 24 hour period — marking over 10,000 daily cases after a gap of 33 days — while the number of active coronavirus cases shot past 82,000 in the country.
“Clearly we are seeing an increase in cases... our reproduction factor is 1.22 now... as the scenario emerges, we believe it could be a part of the global rise in cases, pushed by the Omicron virus,” said VK Paul, member-health, Niti Aayog, who also heads the national task force on Covid.
“Omicron is a highly transmissible variant that perhaps explains the speed of the rise in these cases. The severity issue of the variant is unsettled. Hopefully, it remains mild but can’t be taken for granted,” added Paul.
In response to a question on whether the rising numbers should be seen as the start of the third Covid wave in the country, Paul, however, said that it is an “emerging situation.”
“Where it will go is in our hands and we should not allow the cases to go up," he cautioned.
Earlier in the day, flagging a sudden rise in Covid cases across 14 cities, the Centre wrote to several states, urging them to take quick measures to check the surge.
"Take steps now to avoid increased mortality," was the Centre's advice, with officials nudging states to follow Delhi’s graded response action as it has imposed several restrictions in the wake of rising Covid test positivity rate and increasing cases.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to health secretaries of Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala and Telangana, asking them to step up mitigation measures and vaccination coverage while preparing the healthcare infrastructure in case the situation worsens.
While Delhi and Mumbai have shown the maximum spike, other cities, including Gurugram, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, too, are not far behind, said officials in the briefing.