There has been a slight increase in the country’s daily Covid-19 caseload. On Thursday, India witnessed 1,72,433 cases of infection. This is 6.84% higher than Wednesday. On Wednesday, Covid-19 caseload was 161,386 infections. According to the Union health ministry, India logged 1,008 deaths in the last 24 hours, also.
Sources at the Union health ministry said as per the data, the overall death toll due to Covid-19 now stands at 498,983 and the nationwide tally jumped to 41,803,318.
Why Covid-19 death caseload is rising?
The steep rise in the daily death toll of Covid-19 is because Kerala is adding a backlog of deaths. In fact reports state that Kerala reports more than 50,000 daily Covid-19 cases with the state recording 52,199 fresh infections on Wednesday raising the caseload to 61,29,755. The state has shown an average test positivity rate (TPR) of 47.6% for the last seven days.
Also read: यूपी और दिल्ली जैसे शहरों में क्यों नहीं होती है स्नोफॉल
This is when Kerala’s Health Minister Veena George said on Tuesday that the rate of spread of Covid-19 had dipped compared to the first and second weeks of January. In addition, till date the state has reported Covid-19 death count of 56,100. This was stated in a government Press release. The release added that of the deaths due to Covid-19, 29 were reported in the last 24 hours. 136 were those which occurred in the last few days but were not recorded due to late receipt of documents and 335 were designated as Covid-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Apex court.
Delhi mulls further relaxations
Media reports state the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will meet on Friday to mull extension of restrictions or curbs in the Delhi capital area. As there is a drop in new Covid-19 cases in Delhi, reports suggest that further relaxations in Covid-19 curbs could include reopening of schools as well.
Also read: अखिलेश यादव के नए वायदे से बदलेगी यूपी के लोगों की जिंदगी
After touching a record high of 28,867 on January 13 this year, health department updates suggest that the number of daily cases in Delhi has been on a steady decline. During the present Coronavirus pandemic wave, Delhi recorded the highest positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14. And in the next 10 days, the daily cases have dropped below the 10,000-mark.
Is there a Covid-19 third wave?
Reports state the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic in India may peak by early February, 2022. This claim is made by a modelling study by researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. However, the forecast is based on the assumption that India will follow the trends of rise in cases seen in many countries globally driven by the Omicron variant of coronavirus. The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, posted on the preprint repository MedRxiv on December 21, used a statistical tool named the Gaussian Mixture model. In their study, the researchers used data from countries such as the US, UK, Germany, and Russia that are already facing the third Covid-19 wave.