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New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday said over 594 fresh COVID-19 infections were reported in the country and the number of active cases increased to 2,669 from 2,311 the previous day. Currently, the country’s COVID-19 tally stands at 4.50 crore (4,50,06,572) and the death toll climbed to 5,33,327 with six more people — three from Kerala, two from Karnataka and one from Punjab — succumbing to the viral disease, the data updated at 8 am stated.
Health experts said the rising number cases of Covid-19 in India is mainly driven by JN.1 sub-variant of Omiron. However, they said there is nothing to panic as the infections remain mild.
Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant said the last two weeks has seen “steep rise in active Covid cases from 115 on Dec 6 to 614 and there is also no increase in hospitalisation rates.
Dr Honey Savla, Internal medicine specialist at Wockhardt Hospitals in Mumbai Central told India.com that there is definite a surge in cough, cold and fever cases in Kerala, Goa and Maharashtra.
“I think we should impose strict social distancing and mask restrictions because of festive season but there is no need for lockdown as of now. There is no evidence to suggest that JN.1 can cause worse symptoms or spread faster than the variants already in circulation. Initially, there were concerns that the high number of mutations could mean that Pirola would evade immune response more easily and spread rapidly. That, however, hasn’t happened. We need to vaccinate individuals in order to protect them better,” Dr Honey Savla, said.
Even though experts did not recommend imposition of lockdown-like restrictions in the country, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former WHO chief scientist, however, recommended masking up in a crowded place is needed if people are vulnerable to infections.
She also stressed that people who are sick should wear a mask to protect others. For the vulnerable population, she recommended using pulse oximeters.
Dr Sudhir Bhandari, Vice Chancellor, Rajasthan University of Health Science, told News 18 that the variant of interest is JN.1 which is quite infectious and has similar symptoms on infection. “But, our situation now is different due to widespread vaccination and prior infection among the people,” Bhandari added.
Niranjan Mishra, Director of Public Health, Odisha said, “In Odisha, we have zero active cases of COVID-19 so far. Of all the cases being detected, the maximum is coming from Kerala. The new JN.1 variant is a sub-variant of omicron and is prevailing in 30 countries. It has been reported that it has a high transmissibility but it causes mild infection.”
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