COVID cases in Mumbai and Delhi spike to hit 5-month high, death count stable

The number of daily new COVID-19 cases has shot up to nearly 1,900 on March 25, the highest since October 28 or the highest in five months. In fact the number of cases have been rising steadily since the past 2 weeks. The Prime Minister (PM) held an emergency meeting to check preparedness, while the health ministry has called for a nationwide mock drill in government hospital on April 10 and April 11.

There is also much written about a new virus variant XBB.1.16. How worried should one get, are all these headlines quite unnecessary? Or is this caution legitimate and are people likely to return to a regime of masks and mass testing?

According to Doctor Chandrakant Lahariya, Epidemiologist, Public Policy and Health Systems Expert, “Though cases are rising this is the first time on March 16, World Health Organization (WHO) redesignated Omicron as a previous variant of concern. So till now there have been five variants of concern globally but right now there is no variant of concern currently circulating, all are previous variants of concern.”

“We should be prepared for the rise and fall in the cases. When cases rise, it is logical that government take notice, start doing mock drills but for individual citizen it is not a reason to be worried, unless there is a rise in the hospitalization, which doesn’t seem to be the scenario,” he further added.

Dr Lahariya is the Co-Author of 'Till We WIN: India's Fight Against COVID -19 Pandemic' book.

K Srinath Reddy, Professor at the Public Health Foundation of India believes that this is a virus that has now come to stay with us. “Fortunately for us, in its present form, it is not very virulent and therefore, it is likely to be infected possibly even a little more immune-evasive but not cause serious harm at the population level,” he said.

“There will be some people who are individually vulnerable. People who have serious co-morbidities, particularly elderly debilitated people or people who are immunodeficient and they must protect themselves more by taking the precautionary dose if they have not taken and wear masks in crowded areas,” he added.