Major Indian cities may hit COVID cases next week: experts | Coronavirus pandemic News

New COVID-19 infections in cities like New Delhi and Mumbai in India could peak next week after a rapid rise, experts say the country has been receiving the highest number of cases per day since the end of May.

The 247,417 new infections on Thursday were more than 30 times the daily number of cases more than a month ago, rising as they became more contagious. Omikron variant He replaced Delta throughout the country. Infections totaled 36.32 million, behind the United States alone.

“Our model, and that of others, suggests that large Indian cities should see their peaks in cases close to January 20, and that the overall peak in India may change a little later, in early February,” said Professor Gautam Menon. physics and biology at the Ashoka University near the capital.

Mumbai had 20,971 infections last Friday, but the number has dropped since then. City officials said the infection rate was also falling, with nearly 80 percent of COVID-19 hospital beds empty.

Delhi reported more than 27,500 infections on Wednesday, near the height of its time, and the health minister told local media this week that infections could begin to subside in a few days.

Federal and state health officials say most third-wave infections have been mild, killing hundreds of thousands of people in April and May with fewer hospitalizations and deaths.

The Ministry of Health has said that regular use for pain like paracetamol should be sufficient for people with mild fever as a result of COVID-19. However, he warned with complacency that infections have started to grow in less than 80 weeks in 300 districts a week ago.

“Experience from other countries informs us that it is more practical to monitor / control hospitalizations than new cases,” said Rajib Dasgupta, head of Social Medicine and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

“Non-pharmaceutical interventions (blockages, etc.) are becoming increasingly important with the rapid and impossible transmission of the community.”

Healthcare worker receives a sample of a man while others wait in the market area of ​​Delhi’s Old Town [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

However, many cities and states, including Delhi, have set night limits. The capital is also completely blocked on weekends, with private offices, schools and restaurants closed all week.

The latest rise in infections in India has advanced elections in five states, Including Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 220 million as of February 10th.

Political parties have held large rallies in recent weeks, with tens of thousands of people.

The superspreader fears the Holy Mass

Last year’s rise in the virus killed more than 200,000 people – experts say the actual figure could be much higher – and was partly blamed on major political rallies and religious events.

The statue of West Bengal is huge Hindu religious fair this week on an island in the Ganges, and Tamil Nadu has the opportunity to hold a bullfighting festival next week.

Hindu pilgrims arrive at the confluence of the Ganges River and the Bay of Bengal before the Makar Sankranti Festival in the eastern state of West Bengal. [Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters]

Officials said they expected about three million people, including ashes from the ashes and dreadlocked ascetics, to perform a ritual bath in the Holy River on Friday, the highest annual of Gangasagar Mela.

The state government on Thursday called on people to test for COVID-19, with Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee wearing two masks and not “spitting on the island as the virus spreads.”

Amitava Nandy, a virologist at the Kolkata School of Tropical Medicine, said the government has “no facilities or manpower” to test all attendees or to impose rules on social exclusion.

“A stampede-like situation could occur if police try to establish a social distance on the banks of the river,” Nandy said, adding that the festival “could be a superhero of the virus.”

A man dressed as a Hindu god, Lord Shiva, seeks alms from pilgrims when they join the Ganges River in West Bengal and the Bay of Bengal. [Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters]

India has given two doses of vaccine to nearly 70% of its 939 million adult population, but many remain untouched. This has worried officials mainly because the five states are holding regional elections.

The country reported 380 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, more than 46% of which were unregistered in the southern state of Kerala. The total death toll reached 485,035, just behind U.S. and Brazilian tolls alone.

Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Research Council, the government’s top scientific body, on Monday amended its mandatory test guidelines to ease the strain on the examination infrastructure. Healthy and asymptomatic contacts of confirmed coronavirus patients no longer require mandatory testing.