90% jump in daily Covid cases in India; masks must in NCR

After a steady decline in new Covid-19 cases for the past several weeks following the third surge in January-February this year mainly due to the Omicron variant, India’s daily Covid-19 infections witnessed a jump of 89.8% on Monday from yesterday’s 1,150 cases and reported 2,183 fresh cases in the last 24 hours.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the daily case positivity rate also saw a sudden rise from 0.31% (on Sunday) to 0.83% (on Monday). The weekly positivity rate saw an uptick from 0.27% (on Sunday) to 0.32 (on Monday). However, with the recovery of 1,985 Covid-19 patients in the last 24 hours, the active cases saw a minor decline to 11,542 which account for 0.03% of the total cases.

Delhi continues to register an increase in its daily Covid-19 caseload as it reported 517 new infections during the last 24 hours. As per the Delhi health department, this is the highest number after 20 February when a total of 570 Covid-19 cases were registered.

Meanwhile, with an increase in Covid-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh, the state government on Monday said it had made it compulsory for people to wear masks in public places in the state capital Lucknow and districts in the National Capital Region (NCR). Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to make it compulsory for people to wear masks in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Baghpat and Lucknow. Those left out in the vaccination drive should be identified and given shots, Adityanath further told officials in a review meeting.

Over the past 24 hours, 65 positive cases were recorded in Gautam Buddha Nagar, 20 in Ghaziabad and 10 in Lucknow, said the government. Genome screening of the samples of the positive cases in NCR confirmed the Omicron variant, it added. There are 695 active cases in the state and 83,864 samples were tested over the last 24 hours out of which 115 were found to be positive.