Data updated by the Union Ministry of Health, India showed 2,82,970 new Covid-19 cases and 441 related deaths in the last 24 hours ending 8 am Wednesday. The daily count is a slight increase from Tuesday. The active caseload has also increased to 18,31,000, up from Tuesday’s 17.3 lakh. The daily positivity rate climbed to 15.13 %. The Omicron tally has reached 8,961 (0.79 %) since yesterday.

On Tuesday, the head of emergencies at the World Health Organization said that the adversities of the pandemic could be over if the huge inequities in vaccinations and medicines were addressed quickly. Dr Michael Ryan said the virus may never end because such pandemic viruses end up becoming part of the ecosystem, but maximum vaccination to the populations could help to decrease mortality and end the public health emergency this year. 

The Union Health Ministry Tuesday suggested the health departments in the country increase testing, highlighting a decline in several states and Union Territories over the last few days.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said on Tuesday that Mumbai had crossed the peak and the daily Covid-19 case count was expected to fall as was observed over the last week. 10,661 cases were observed on Saturday; 7,895 on Sunday; 5,956 on Monday and 6,149 new cases on Tuesday were reported.

Delhi, also reported a decline in cases, with 11,684 cases reported on Tuesday. In Kolkata, a similar declining trend was observed with only 2,205 cases being reported on Tuesday. Chennai also showed distinct signs of a slowdown, though the cases have not begun to decline.But cities like Bengaluru reported 25,595 cases on Tuesday and Pune reported 11,784 cases which were the highest number of cases in the third wave on Tuesday.

Additional Health Secretary Arti Ahuja reiterated to health secretaries the fresh ICMR guidelines issued after the emergence of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant. The new ICMR guidelines had stated that all those who are symptomatic and at-risk contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases must be tested — while there was no need to do so for asymptomatic people.

Source: The Indian Express