Covid cases rise from 46,000 to 1.3L in biggest weekly surge

Sunday’s Case Tally 33.7k, 21% Rise In A Day

Sunday’s Case Tally 33.7k, 21% Rise

 In  A  Day

Amit.Bhattacharya@timesgroup.com

03.01.2022

In what now looks like the third wave of Covid-19 in the country, cases of the virus nearly tripled in the week ending Sunday as compared days, registering an unprecedented rise of 181% during the period.

India recorded nearly 1. 3 lakh fresh cases during the week (December 27-January 2) — a 12-week high — compared to the previous week’s tally of 46,073, which ironically was the lowest since the middle of May 2020.

This was by far the sharpest weekly surge in infections since the beginning of the pandemic in the country. The previous highest increase was 71% recorded during the second wave between April 5 and April11, 2021.

On Sunday, 33,703 fresh cases of the coronavirus were detected across the country (with two states yet to report), another 21% rise from the previous day’s count of 27,747, as per TOI’s Covid database.

Sunday’s tally was five times the number of cases recorded in the country last Sunday (6,542). › Daily Covid tally, P 13

Omicron ‘sibling’ escapes imported test kits: Experts

BA.2, one of the sub-lineages of Omicron (B.1.1.529) which does not show the characteristic S-genedrop, cannot be picked up by the imported RT-PCR kits, researchers involved in tracking the virus in India said on Sunday. The Omicron variant has three sublineages. The findingis likely to upset the existing dual RT-PCR testing strategy which states with confirmed Omicron cases have adopted for faster detection, as the result may falsely be interpreted as aSARS-CoV2variant other than Omicron.