INDORE: The third wave of coronavirus pandemic may peak in Indore district in Madhya Pradesh either in the last week of January or in the beginning of February with cases surging to over 5,000 a day, a member of the state advisory committee said on Sunday.
A total of 1,852 cases were reported in the Indore district in the last 24 hours with the case positivity rate at 16.5 per cent, which is the highest number of infections recorded in a single day in this district in the last 22 months of the pandemic, officials said.
Indore is the worst-hit district in Madhya Pradesh in terms of the COVID pandemic.
A total of 1,841 cases were found in Indore on April 25 last year during the peak of the second wave of the pandemic.
Dr Nishant Khare, a member of the state-level advisory committee for the prevention of COVID-19, told PTI that given the current trend of the surge in infections, it is estimated that the third wave may peak either in the last week of January or at the beginning of February in the Indore district.
"More than 5,000 new cases may be detected in a single day in the Indore district during this peak," he said.
At the same time, less than two per cent of the patients currently need hospitalisation while the rest are recovering during home isolation, Khare said.
He said 80 per cent of the newly infected patients in the Indore district are asymptomatic.
The Indore district administration has made arrangements of admitting 10,000 people to hospitals in the district if needed, officials said.
Indore district registered 1,65,124 COVID-19 cases since March 24, 2020.
1,398 patients died during treatment.
The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh rose to 8,30,923 on Sunday after the addition of 6,380 new cases, while the death toll increased by two to 10,545, a health department official said.
The positivity rate stood at 7.7 per cent against 6.6 per cent recorded on Saturday, when the state had recorded 5,315 infections, he said.
Madhya Pradesh's recovery count stood at 7,90,269 after 1,785 people were discharged from hospitals during the day, leaving the state with 30,109 active cases, the official said.
Indore and Bhopal, the two worst coronavirus-hit cities in Madhya Pradesh, registered 1,852 and 1175 cases, respectively, during the past 24 hours, he added.
With 82,703 samples examined during the day, the total number of tests conducted so far in MP went up to 2,47,58,749, the official said.
A total of 10,74,63,788 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in MP, including 1,20,927 on Sunday, an official release said.
Coronavirus figures in MP are as follows: Total cases 8,30,923, new cases 6,380, death toll 10,545, recoveries 7,90,269, active cases 30,109, number of tests so far 2,47,58,749.