India daily covid cases fall slightly but still more than 10,000

India today reported 10,093 cases in the past 24 hours, slightly lower than Saturday's numbers. On Saturday, 10,753 fresh cases were reported. 19 deaths were reported in past 24 hours, including 4 reconciled deaths as per the ICMR guidelines and falling within 90 days following the date of death. Active cases went up by 3822 to 57542 while 6248 recovered in past 24 hours. Delhi had 4631 active cases, Kerala 19,481 and Maharashtra 6047.

The daily covid positivity rate was 5.61% while weekly positivity rate stood at 4.78%. 807 doses of vaccine were administered in last 24 hours. A total of 220.66 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far, including 95.21 crore second Dose and 22.87 crore precaution doses under nationwide vaccination drive.



A total number of 1,79,853 tests were done during the previous day. Experts say that the new covid variant XBB.1.16 or Arcturus is behind the recent surge in cases in India. The WHO said that "there are currently no reported laboratory or country reports associating the new covid variant with increased disease
severity. But a recent study on XBB.1.16 shows the variant to have an increased growth rate compared to XBB
and XBB.1.5 respectively, the WHO said.

Health experts have urged the public not to panic but have warned the elderly people and those with co-morbidities to wear masks and avoid crowded places.

The new covid variant Arcturus is also gaining a foothold in the US, latest data show. It accounted for about 7% of cases in US, latest weekly data show.

The WHO in its latest update said that globally, 3 million new cases and over 23 000 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (13 March to 9 April 2023), a decrease of 28% and 30%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days (13 February to 12 March 2023). But the WHO warned that current trends does not "continue to be underestimates of the true number of global infections and reinfections as shown by prevalence surveys. This is partly due to the reductions in testing and delays in reporting in many countries."