Delhi, 12 other states see a rise in weekly Covid cases

Delhi, 12 other states see a rise in weekly Covid cases

Amit.Bhattacharya@timesgroup.com

3.8.2021

It is not just Kerala and its neighbouring states where Covid-19 infections have been rising over the past few days. As many as 13 states recorded an increase in cases last week, apart from Tamil Nadu which saw no change, although absolute numbers remained low at most places.

The hill states of north India saw the maximum rise in fresh cases during the week ended Sunday (July 26-August 1) as compared with the previous seven days. Himachal Pradesh registered a surge of 64%, the highest in the country, with cases rising from 670 in the previous week to 1,100. Uttarakhand logged a 61% increase in infections, although numbers in the state were still quite low — 437 last week as compared with 272 in the preceding period. J&K logged a surge of 26%.

Delhi, where weekly cases had dropped to this year’s lowest count of 381 in the week before last, saw a 15% rise in infections.

The city recorded 440 fresh cases last week. Neighbouring Haryana too registered a minor rise of 2%.

While in absolute numbers these spikes were largely marginal, what’s significant is that all these states had been registering a fall in infections till the week before last.

In total numbers, Kerala’s weekly surge was by far the highest. The state logged nearly 1.4 lakh fresh cases, 20,000 more than the count in the previous week, translating to a 27% spurt in infections. Karnataka’s weekly total was 12,442, a 17% rise from 10,610 cases recorded in the previous week.

Meanwhile, the surge in the northeast (minus Assam) slowed to 2%, from 16% in the previous week.

Significantly, worst-hit Maharashtra recorded an 11% drop in infections, the steepest percentage fall in six weeks. The state recorded 45,272 new infections during the week, down from 50,732 in the previous seven days.

Meanwhile, India recorded 29,853 fresh cases on Monday (with Delhi’s data yet to come in till midnight). The tally was lower than the number recorded last Monday (30,619) although Kerala’s cases remained relatively high at 13,984. Cases drop sharply every Monday due to lower testing and staff shortages over the weekend. There were 419 deaths reported during the day.

Covaxin batches rejected due to stability issues caused disruption in July supply

Covaxin supplies were disrupted in July as initial batches from Bharat Biotech’s new fermentation plant at Bengaluru faced some stability issues and were rejected for supply. The batches were not utilised. Stability studies on vaccines and various other pharmaceutical products are conducted to determine the storage period of intermediates and determine or modify the maximum shelf-life. Experts say it is a regular phenomenon when batches of drugs and vaccines fail to qualify stability test.

According to the source, disruption at Bharat Biotech’s plant assumed significance because it resulted in a slowdown in vaccination. However, there is no quality issue with the vaccine as such. “It is a new facility with large-scale fermentation plant. The trial batches were disrupted during standardisation process and therefore, the supply of Covaxin was less than expected. It has been sorted out now and supplies have also started. It will be full-scale very soon,” the official said. TNN