COVID-19: India reports 3,275 new cases, 55 more deaths
India on Thursday reported over 3,200 new COVID-19 cases, an increase of around 75 cases from the previous day. The country's active caseload currently stands at 19,719, which accounts for 0.05% of the total cases recorded so far. In the past 24 hours, a total of 3,275 new cases and 55 COVID-19-related fatalities were recorded. Meanwhile, the country's recovery rate stood at 98.74%.
Why does this story matter?
India on Thursday reported higher COVID-19 cases than the day before. While the active caseload recorded an increase on Thursday, the daily positivity rate witnessed a decline during the same period. Notably, COVID-19 cases are rising again in the country after witnessing a sharp decline from January end to April beginning. Some experts believe a fourth wave could hit the country in June.
Over 3K patients discharged
According to data shared by the Union Health Ministry, India reported a total of 4,30,91,393 COVID-19 cases until Thursday morning, while the cumulative death count reached 5,23,975. With 3,010 fresh discharges, the number of total recoveries in the country climbed to 4,25,47,699. On the other hand, the daily and weekly positivity rates were recorded at 0.77% and 0.78%, respectively.
Delhi again adds most new cases
Maharashtra—one of the worst-hit states so far—recorded 188 new cases and 166 more recoveries on Wednesday. Karnataka added 148 new cases and 162 recoveries, while Tamil Nadu witnessed 37 new cases and 58 discharges. On the other hand, Delhi reported 1,354 new cases and 1,486 discharges. Meanwhile, Kerala had not reported its COVID-19 data for Wednesday till the time of writing this report.
India's third wave peaked in January
Notably, India witnessed a massive spurt in coronavirus cases in December-end and at the beginning of January—dubbed India's third wave—due to the highly contagious Omicron variant. The third wave peaked on January 21, 2022, when 3.47 lakh single-day cases were recorded. However, this was lower compared to the second wave, when 4.14 lakh single-day infections were recorded at its peak on May 7, 2021.
Over 189 crore vaccine doses administered
As of Thursday morning, India has administered over 189.5 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses. Overall, over 86.3 crore people have been fully vaccinated, while more than 100.44 crore people have received at least one dose. On Thursday alone, India administered over 1.82 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses till 10:00 am, including over 1.2 lakh second doses and more than 30,000 first doses, according to Co-WIN.
2.75 crore 'precautionary' doses administered
Moreover, India has administered over 2.75 crore "precautionary" doses since January 10. On Thursday, over 15,000 people in the age group of 18-59 years and nearly 20,000 people aged above 60 years were given the precautionary dose till 10:00 am.
Delta or other variant may cause another COVID-19 outbreak: Study
Worryingly, Omicron has not eliminated the variants that preceded it, thus, there are possibilities that the Delta variant or a different coronavirus strain could lead to another COVID-19 outbreak this summer, a modelling study conducted in Israel said. The study found that while Delta wiped out the variants that preceded it, Omicron has not done so, leaving the possibility of their re-emergence.
