India added 3,714 new coronavirus cases to its tally Monday, taking the total to 4,31,85,049, according to Union Health Ministry data. Active cases increased to 26,976, while the death toll climbed to 5,24,708 with seven fresh fatalities.
An increase of 1,194 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The active cases comprise 0.06 per cent of the total infections. The daily positivity rate is 1.21 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate is 0.97 per cent.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,26,33,365, taking the national recovery rate to 98.72 per cent, the ministry said.
Masks made compulsory in Bengaluru again
With a significant rise in daily Covid cases in Bengaluru, the civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Monday stated that its marshals will once again enforce the mandatory wearing of masks in public places.
“Adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour is compulsory. Daily testing will also be increased from 16,000 to 20,000. Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath has instructed zonal commissioners to submit a report on ILI (influenza-like illness) and SARI (severe acute respiratory infections) cases being reported in the hospitals,” Kumar added.
Hospitalisations low in Mumbai
Even though the severity of Covid-19 cases remains mild and very few cases of hospitalisations are reported, the current test positivity rate (TPR) - the number of positive cases out of the total tests conducted - over the past week exceeds five times that of December 2021, when Omicron started proliferating in the third wave.
Over the last week, 54,164 tests were conducted in Mumbai and 4,732 people were identified with Covid-19 taking the TPR to 8.7 per cent. By comparison, in the period between December 21-27, 2021, which was the beginning of the third wave, 4,263 individuals tested positive out of the 2,45,538 tests conducted — registering a TPR of 1.7 per cent.
Public health experts believe that due to low testing, many infected patients might be going unreported. Some say since the TPR is high, if the tests were to increase, there could be a sharp rise in cases across the city.
Meanwhile, as the active Covid-19 count in Maharashtra stood at 7,429 on Monday, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope advised citizens to wear masks to avoid any possible contraction of infection. A day after recording 1,494 cases on Sunday, the daily caseload dropped to 1,036 on Monday. This has been attributed to the plunge in testing in the weekend from 25,994 to 15,988 in the last 48 hours.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Sunday said that 12 people have been diagnosed with the BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Covid-19 strain Omicron in Tamil Nadu. While BA.4 was detected in four samples, BA.5 was detected in eight and all the 12 infected people are doing fine and being monitored, said the minister.
Delhi logs 247 new Covid cases
The national capital on Monday logged 247 fresh Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 3.47 per cent while no new death was reported due to the viral disease, according to data shared by the city health department. This is the highest positivity rate since May 12 when 3.47 per cent of those tested turned out positive.
