Coronavirus: India sees surge in COVID cases, logs 4,518 fresh infections

India has witnessed a surge in COVID-19 cases on Monday as the country logged 4,518 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Health Ministry.

The country had reported 4,270 COVID infections yesterday. With this, India's daily tally of COVID-19 cases crossed the 4,000-mark for the second consecutive day.

As the infections surge, the active COVID caseload in the country stands at 25,782, constituting of 0.06 per cent of India's total positive cases.

The daily positivity rate of 1.62 per cent was observed in the last 24 hours, while the weekly positivity rate was recorded to be 0.91 per cent, the health ministry informed today.

With 2,779 recoveries in the last 24 hours hence, the total recoveries now reached 4,26,30,852. India's Recovery Rate is currently at 98.73 per cent.

As per the health ministry, India conducted 2,78,059 COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours. The country has so far conducted 85.29 crore (85,29,01,546) total tests so far, as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data.

The country has administered more than 194.12 crore (1,94,12,87,000) vaccine doses so far under the nationwide vaccination drive. This has been achieved through 2,47,70,416 sessions.

India has also administered 3,66,62,905 precaution doses to all the beneficiaries so far.

COVID-19 vaccination for the age group 12-14 years began on March 16, 2022. So far, more than 3.44 crore (3,44,48,902) adolescents have been administered the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, the national capital on Sunday witnessed a drop in COVID-19 cases logging 343 new infections in the last 24 hours, as per the health bulletin issued by the Delhi Health Department.

Meanwhile, as many as 12 people tested positive for the new subvariants of COVID BA.4 and BA.5 in Tamil Nadu, as per state Health Minister M Subramanian.

Notably, as India is witnessing a surge in the subvariants of Omicron, Dr Tarun Kumar Sahni, Internal medicine and hyperbaric Oxygen therapist at Indraprastha Apollo hospital clarified that the BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages are quite "mild" because they are behaving like other mutants of COVID-19.

He further said the variant of concern means a particular mutant that can quickly convert and become more serious and progressive than the other variants.

The health expert also stressed following the COVID-19 protocols including wearing masks.

BA.4 and BA.5 are subvariants of the Omicron variant circulating globally. These were reported first from South Africa earlier this year and are now reported from several other countries. These variants have not been associated with disease severity or increased hospitalization.

(ANI)

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