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 with the previous seven 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 — as compared with 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 in April 5-11, 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). Such a steep increase is consistent with reports of Omicron's spread in other countries, although the percentage of people being infected with the new variant is yet to be properly estimated.
This week’s tally of cases was also the highest seen in India since October 4-10, nearly three months ago, when 1.37 lakh infections were reported.
The biggest surge in numbers was reported in Maharashtra, which logged 41,980 cases during the week, close to the count reported from the entire country in the preceding week. This week's tally in Maharashtra was five times higher than the state's numbers in the previous week (8,292).
Bihar reported the highest weekly percentage increase, with cases going from 85 in the December 20-26 week to 1,073, a 12-fold rise although the absolute numbers were low as yet.
Bengal recorded the second highest weekly number of cases at 18,524, up more than five times the previous week's tally of 3,550. Delhi registered a nine-fold surge with 10,769 fresh cases in the week, up from 1,155 in the previous seven days. Jharkhand numbers also leaped by nearly nine times to 2,879, from 326.
Other states where this week's cases were at least five times higher than the preceding one included Gujarat (4,410 cases), Uttar Pradesh (1,617), Rajasthan (1,403), Chhattisgarh (1,133) and Haryana (2,285).
Overall, weekly cases rose in 30 out of 36 states/Union territories, another statistic that points to the surge now turning into a wave. A notable exception to the rise was Kerala, where numbers dropped by 1% this week. However, the significant slowing down of the decline this week could be a precursor to cases rising in the southern state as well.
Meanwhile, India recorded 1,897 deaths during the week, a decline of 22% from the previous week's toll of 2,441. However, a majority of the fatalities recorded in the past several weeks are old deaths that are being added to the records now, mainly by Kerala.
(With inputs from agencies)