New Delhi: Covid cases in the country will rise for the next 10-12 days and then subside, said government sources today, asserting that there’s no need to worry over the latest uptick in infections across the country.
The infection is now in the endemic stage, said health ministry sources even as the infections clocked a fresh high in many months. In an endemic stage, an infection is restricted to a particular region whereas in pandemic, the infection spreads to a bigger area or even worldwide.
India recorded 7,830 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, the highest in over seven months, showed the latest government data.
Though the infection may rise, hospitalisation will remain low, the sources asserted.
The XBB.1.16 subvariant of Omicron, which is driving the latest surge, is not a cause of worry and vaccines are effective against it, they added.
The subvariant’s prevalence increased from 21.6% in February to 35.8% in March, but no incident of hospitalisation or death has been reported, the sources said.
Meanwhile, India added a single-day rise of 7,830 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, the highest in 223 days, and the count of active cases in the country has increased to 40,215, according to the data released by the Health Ministry.
The death count due to the contagious disease has increased to 5,31,016 with 16 new fatalities – two each in Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and one each in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Five virus-related deaths were reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The infection count reported today – a sharp jump from yesterday when 5,676 cases were reported – has taken the total number of Covid cases reported in the country to 4,47,76,002.
The country recorded a single-day jump of 7,946 COVID-19 cases on September 1 last year.
1,774 cases of the XBB1.16 variant have been found across 22 states and Union Territories. Over 230 of the infected patients have contracted XBB1.16.1, the mutated sub-variant of Omicron, according to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) data.
Active cases now account for 0.09 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.72 per cent, according to the health ministry website.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 4,42,04,771, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent, the data showed.
According to the ministry’s website, 220.66 crore doses of vaccines have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
4 soldiers killed in Bathinda Military Station firing; Punjab Police say incident ‘not a terror attack’
Chandigarh: Four soldiers from an artillery unit have been killed in a shooting incident at the Bathinda Military Station in Punjab early on Wednesday morning.
“A firing incident reported in the early hours of the morning around 4.35 am inside the Bathinda Military Station. Station Quick Reaction Teams were activated. Area was cordoned off and sealed,” a senior officer said.
According to sources, the incident took place in the premises of the unit’s officers’ mess. Initial reports point the incident to be a case of fratricide. Sources said an INSAS rifle from the unit and 28 rounds of ammunition had gone missing from the unit premises two days ago.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Police have called it a ‘fratricidal incident’.
Punjab’s Additional Director General of Police, SPS Parmar, said, “It is not a terrorist attack, it is not an attack from outside. It is a fratricidal incident.” The Punjab Police will also be part of the investigations into the incident.
A search operation is under way to apprehend the perpetrator and a high alert has been sounded. Besides the Ministry of Defence and Army Headquarters, the police and sister agencies have also been intimated about the incident.
Bathinda is an important military installation and houses the headquarters of 10 Corps, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Jaipur-based South Western Command.
The station is also home to a large number of operational Army units and other static establishments.
“A court of inquiry will investigate the entire matter to establish the facts of the case and fix responsibility,” an officer said.
Apart from the four soldiers, there has been no other casualty in the incident nor any damage or loss to property, the Army said.

Press Trust of India