India sees less than 3,000 Covid cases for 5th day amid global surge

While several countries in the world are witnessing a fresh Covid wave, India registered less than 3,000 infections for the fifth consecutive day. The active caseload stands at 29,181, which is .07 per cent of the overall cases logged so far (over 4.3 crore infections), according to the latest government data. In the last 24 hours, 149 new deaths were registered, taking the overall death count to 5,16,281. The death rate stands at 1.20 per cent.

Read more: In fresh surge, world saw 11 million Covid cases in a week | 10 updates

With 3,997 patients having recovered in the last 24 hours, the recovery rate stands at 98.73 per cent. In a letter to states, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has yet again emphasied on the need to focus on the five-fold strategy of “Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour’, news agency ANI reported.

On Thursday, 6.33 lakh tests were conducted. India’s daily and weekly positivity rate stands at .4 per cent, the government said on Friday. The country has so far given 180.97 crore vaccine doses.

Worldwide, several countries have seen a fresh spike in cases, including China where it’s believed to be driven by the ‘stealth Omicron variant’. South Korea, Thailand, Germany, France are among the countries where a surge has been reported. In the March 7-March 13 week, 11 million new cases were logged globally.

“After several weeks of declines, reported cases of COVID-19 are once again increasing globally, especially in parts of Asia. These increases are occurring despite reductions in testing in some countries, which means the cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Thursday.

“We call on all countries to remain vigilant. Continue to vaccinate, test, sequence, provide early care for patients, and apply common-sense public health measures to protect health workers and the public,” he added.