Two months after the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic began in the country, the Omicron-driven surge is nearly over. While daily cases dropped below 10,000 on Sunday, a first since December 28, cumulative cases in the week ending Sunday dipped below the number recorded in the first week of the current wave, reports Amit Bhattacharya.
India reported just over 86,000 new cases in the current week (February 21-27), lower than the tally recorded in the first week of the “Omicron” wave – December 27-January 2, when 1.3 lakh infections were logged in the country. This was also the first time in nine weeks that the weekly case count had dipped below the 1-lakh mark.
Week-on-week, cases fell by over half for the third week running – a rate of decline unprecedented in all three waves of the pandemic so far.
Cases fell by 50% this week, from 1.7 lakh logged in the previous seven days, while the previous two weeks had seen cases decline by 56% and 59%, respectively. Deaths from the virus too fell by a sharp 43%.
India reported a Covid toll of 1,074 this week, down from 1,899 in the previous seven days. This was the third straight week of decreasing deaths in the country after a peak of 4,355 fatalities in January 31-February 6.
These figures don’t include deaths from earlier months that were added to the toll during this period. Driven by the Omicron variant, the third wave of the pandemic began around December 27, when the seven-day average of daily cases started to rise consistently.
Meanwhile, the country logged around 8,600 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, the lowest daily tally since December 27, when 6,242 new infections were recorded. This was the first time in 61 days that the daily case count had fallen below 10,000.
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