COVID-19: Nearly 3 lakh more infected as India grapples with swamped health infra

COVID patients share beds and medical oxygen at LLR Hospital in Kanpur, UP, on Wednesday. Pic/PTI

The single-day rise in new Coronavirus infections inched closer to 3 lakh and a record 2,023 daily fatalities were added in a span of 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday morning.

A total of 2,95,041 fresh cases were recorded and the active cases rose to 21,57,538. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has dropped to 85.01 per cent.

According to reports, that cited health experts, a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 has emerged in India, which is even more capable of evading immune response. A triple mutant - a combination of three mutated strains of SARS-CoV-2 - is said to be spreading in Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal.

Till now, India was grappling with the much more infectious double mutant. "This is a more transmissible variant. It is making lots of people sick very quickly. We have to keep tweaking vaccines. For that we need to understand the disease. But we need sequencing on war footing," said Madhukar Pai, professor of epidemiology at McGill University, told NDTV.

"As you can notice, West Bengal seems to be becoming the hotspot for such mutations. The new triple mutant could make the virus even more capable of evading human immune response," the Indian Express quoted a source as saying. "We need to do a lot more sequencing of a lot many samples."

Experts said the slow pace of genome sequencing meant delayed detection of double mutant, which could have caused the massive surge in cases.

Meanwhile, vaccination for every adult starts on May 1, and the present system of private vaccination centres receiving doses from the government and charging up to Rs 250 per dose will cease to exist and they will procure directly from manufacturers, the health ministry said.

According to the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy, vaccination will continue to be free for eligible population groups comprising healthcare and frontline workers and population aged above 45 in government COVID vaccination centres which receive doses from the Centre.

1st post-vaccination infection data out

Over 21,000 people tested positive for COVID-19 after taking the first dose of either Covishield or Covaxin, and 5,709 after taking the second dose, the Centre said on Wednesday. ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said that post-vaccination infection "is known as breakthrough infection... This is a very small number and not at all worrisome."

Free vaccination for all in three states

Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said everyone in the age group of 18-45 will be vaccinated for free. "...GOI is giving free vaccines for 45+," he tweeted. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments also said they will vaccinate every eligible adult for free.

1,56,16,130
Total no. of coronavirus cases in India so far

1,82,553
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India so far

1,32,76,039
Total no. of patients recovered and discharged in India so far

13,01,19,310
(Total no. of people vaccinated so far)

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