NEW DELHI: India has reported a 2.85 per cent drop in Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, with the country logging 9,355 new cases, as per Union Health Ministry data.
While nine states, including Kerala, Delhi, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Haryana, have shown a dip in Covid-19 cases, nine other states continue to see a hike in numbers.
The states that are witnessing a rise in numbers are Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Goa, among others.
As many as 26 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, with Delhi – which continues to see over 1,000 Covid-19 cases - registering seven deaths due to Covid-19, as per data.
Kerala reported six reconciled deaths. The other states that reported Covid-10 deaths include Rajasthan (3), Haryana (2) and Punjab (2).
Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Bihar recorded one death each.
Though the cases have dipped, nine states are showing a spurt in cases of Covid-19, driven by Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.16.
The states that are seeing a jump in number of Covid-19 cases from the previous day are Jammu and Kashmir (48%), Bihar (38%), Jharkhand (29%), Rajasthan (16%), West Bengal (13%) and Maharashtra (9%), said Krishna Prasad N C, a Covid data analyst.
Poll-bound Karnataka is seeing a hike of 35 per cent in Covid-19 cases from the previous day. Punjab and Goa both recorded a six per cent hike in Covid-19 cases, he said.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that Covid-19 deaths had dropped by 95 per cent since the beginning of the year. But it warned that the virus was still on the move.
The WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Covid-19 is here to stay, and the UN agency will publish a guide for countries next week on how to move from an emergency response to the long-term management of Covid-19.
"We're very encouraged by the sustained decline in reported deaths from Covid-19, which have dropped 95 per cent since the beginning of this year," he said.
“However, some countries are seeing increases and over the past four weeks, 14,000 people lost their lives to this disease. And as the emergence of the new XBB.1.16 variant illustrates the virus is still changing and capable of causing new waves of disease and death."
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid-19, said XBB sub-lineages were now dominant worldwide. They have an increase in growth advantage and are also showing immune escape, meaning people can be re-infected despite having been vaccinated or previously infected.