INSACOG – Aarogyapath Blog

Covid cases are declining across the country with daily and weekly positivity recorded at 0.08%.

India has reported 109 new covid cases in the last 24 hours, with active cases declining to 1,781, the union health ministry data on Thursday showed. ‘

The total number of covid cases has reached 4.47 crore, and covid related deaths stood at 530,748 since the onset of covid pandemic.

Covid cases are declining across the country with daily and weekly positivity recorded at 0.08%.

Karnataka reported 108 active cases while Kerala has 1218 active cases. Maharashtra has 83 active cases, Odisha 88 cases, Rajasthan 10 cases, Tamil Nadu 36 active cases, Uttar Pradesh 16 and West Bengal 43 cases.

Around 4,41,51,219 people have recovered from the infection with the current recovery rate touching 98.81%.

With the rapid decline in the trajectory of covid cases, scientists believe that Omicron and its sub-lineages will not affect India as large number of populations is already exposed to the virus and vaccinated. Scientists say that people in India have developed hybrid immunity (due to vaccination and natural infection). However, they suggest people wear masks in crowded places and complete their vaccination doses if not done yet.

India reports 109 new covid cases

At present, large number of cases are being reported in China and other countries as a result of which the government has tightened covid preparedness measures. The government has directed the INSACOG under the supervision of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to keep a close watch on covid situation in the country and continue to do constant genome sequencing to track any new variant.

The government is conducting RT-PCR testing for people returning from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea and mandated the filling up of ‘Air Suvidha’ forms for travelers from six countries under which 72-hour prior RT-PCR testing is compulsory.

The country has conducted over 1,41,248 tests in the last 24 hours taking the total trajectory of covid testing to 91.67 crore so far.

Under the covid vaccination drive, more than 220.61 crore vaccine doses have been administered to the people across the country so far. In the last 24 hours, around 1,13,507 vaccine doses were administered.

Besides, surveillance at the hospital level is also going on to monitor lnfluenza-like illness (lLl) & SARI cases.

“There is currently no evidence of any new Delta sub-lineage that is of greater concern than Delta,” INSACOG has said.

The Delta variant of SARS-CoV2 continues to be the dominant lineage for new cases across the country, while the other Variants of Concern (VoC) are at a lower rate and declining, Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), a consortium of government panels involved in the genome-sequencing of the coronavirus, has said.

There is currently no evidence of any new Delta sub-lineage that is of greater concern than Delta, it has said.

“Delta continues to be the dominant lineage for new cases across all parts of India in recent samples and remains the most rapidly rising lineage globally that is responsible for multiple outbreaks, including across Southeast Asia, which shows the fastest growth in new cases globally,” the INSACOG said.

Regions with high vaccination and strong public health measures, such as Singapore, continue to do well, it noted.

The Delta variant was behind the deadly second wave of the coronavirus in India that killed thousands and infected lakhs during March to May.

The INSACOG said a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has confirmed that most of the clinical cases in vaccine breakthrough were infected with the Delta variant but only 9.8% cases required hospitalisation, while fatality was found to be restricted to 0.4%.

It added that the data for higher infectivity of Delta continues to grow with the secondary attack rate in household contacts being almost double for Delta, when compared to Alpha (Public Health England, July 9 update). The other VoC continue to be very low in India and are declining relative to Delta globally.

“Public health measures to reduce transmission and vaccination remain critical,” the INSACOG stressed.

No cases of the Lambda variant have so far been reported in the country, it added.

In data from the U.K., Lambda is still seen primarily in travellers or their contacts and is not growing relative to Delta.

A growing spectrum of mutations is seen in the Delta background in the U.K., the U.S. and India.

The most frequent spike protein mutations, other than K417N (AY.1/AY.2), seen in the U.K. are G446V and P251L. In India, A222V and K77T have been reported as possible markers of sub-lineages.

Previous research into the A222V mutation for either transmissibility or immune escape was negative. In the case of the K77T mutation, it has previously been reported in a cluster of Delta that spread to Asiatic lions in a zoo, and seen in sequences from Tamil Nadu, but has no known impact on transmission or immune escape in humans, the INSACOG said.

The INSACOG jointly initiated by the Union Ministry of Health and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the ICMR, is a consortium of 28 national laboratories to monitor the genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2.

source:https://www.thehindu.com/