India’s southern States, particularly Kerala, is witnessing a faster spike in Covid cases, as compared to the North. A prime reason for this increase is attributed to higher screening being carried out, senior Health Ministry officials said. However, all States continue to be “on alert” and the Ministry is following up on collection of samples for genome sequencing.

Officials have not yet attributed the increase in Covid to the JN.1 sub-variant but the presence of the sub-variant has been confirmed across states like Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and in Tamil Nadu too. Last updated numbers from the Ministry say there are 22 such infections. “We are noticing a spike in Covid infections over the last few days, with some southern States reporting heavier numbers. We suspect that this could be seasonal in nature. Last year also we saw a spike in cases around this time. Deaths have been due to co-morbidities; and cannot yet be attributed to JN.1 variant,” the official said.

However, officials have ruled out sending teams to any of the States “immediately”. States have been asked to review their health infra facilities and also their preparedness in case of a rise in infections.

State-wise break up

India’s active Covid cases stood at 2,669 as on Thursday, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare website, while there was no new vaccination being carried out as per data put up there. So far, 220,67,79081 doses have been in administered, on a cumulative basis (across dose 1, 2, and 3 all put together). Some hospitals said, they were out of stock in view of expiry of vaccines, and also because of low demand.

Active case additions on a 24 hour basis stood at 358, with Kerala reporting the highest number of infections at 300. Karnataka reported 13 active cases while Tamil Nadu reported 12. This was followed by Gujarat at 11 and Maharashtra at 10.

India logged in 22 deaths over a 2-3 week period with six of these being reported on a 24-hour basis. Kerala reported three casualties, followed by Karnataka at 2 and Punjab at 1, the Ministry said on its website. Reconciliation of deaths is ongoing in Bihar and Odisha.

Ministry officials have so far not attributed any death to the JN.1 sub-varaint. The sub-variant is categorised as a “variant of interest” and “low risk” by the WHO; while in India, last available reports suggest that there is no clustering. All vaccines are said to work on the sub-variant.

Meanwhile, Delhi’s Health Minister, Saurabh Bharadwaj, on Friday said data of Covid testing is presently being maintained by ICMR and the Delhi Government has requested ICMR to share the Covid-related lab testing info.

On December 19, the number of RT-PCR tests done and the positivity rate in Kerala & Karnataka were 537 and 487 and 20.75 per cent and 2.41 per cent, respectively. In Delhi, the number of RT-PCR and positivity on the same day was 208 and 0.48 per cent. respectively.

The Delhi government has also ordered that Covid samples be collected from ILI/SARI patients attending all Delhi government hospitals.

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