COVID-19 cases witnessed 6.3 times rise in last 8 days, says Health Ministry

The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday reviewed the COVID-19 situation in the country, which has been witnessing a surge in cases in the past few weeks. Noting the rise, the ministry stated that India has reported more than 6.3 times increase in cases in the last 8 days.

"A sharp increase was seen in case positivity from 0.79% on 29 December 2021 to 5.03% on 5 January, 2022," the ministry added.

Speaking at the routine briefing of rising COVID-19 cases, joint secretary, Union Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal said that the states of concern are Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Gujarat where there has been a rise in cases. 28 districts in the country are reporting more than 10% weekly positivity, he added.

Highlighting global statistics on the COVID surge, Aggarwal said that 25.2 lakh cases were recorded globally on 4 January, the highest ever since the onset of the pandemic, adding that approximately 65% of cases in the week ending 4 Jan were reported from the USA, UK, France, Italy & Spain.

Aggarwal said that relatively less hospitalisation has been observed in countries that are reporting a surge in Omicron cases. Do note, 108 cases of Omicron-related deaths have been reported globally so far.

In the context of COVID-19 vaccination for children which started on 3 January, 2021, the ministry said that 7.40 crore children between 15-18 years are eligible for a jab.

Meanwhile, India on Wednesday crossed the milestone of administering over 1 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines to those in the 15-18 age group. The vaccination campaign for this age group commenced on Monday.
 
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya took to Twitter to share the news and appealed those in this age group to get vaccinated at the earliest.

India reported 58,097 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, 55 per cent higher than yesterday's 37,379 cases. This is twice the number seen only four days ago.\

Moreover, India has 2,135 cases of the Omicron variant - the most in Maharashtra with 653 cases, followed by Delhi with 464 cases.