COVID Raises Head Again In India And Globally

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday extended the nationwide COVID-19 containment measures till November 30 amid the ongoing festive season. Cases of coronavirus that were on a record low are once again witnessing a slight spike.

In a communication to chief secretaries of all states and union territories, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said that existing protocols for curbing the spread of Covid-19 will continue till November 30.

As per the health ministry’s data, on Friday India recorded 14,348 fresh cases, slightly lower than Thursday- recorded 16,156 fresh cases- a rise of 20 per cent from Wednesday. The country’s total caseload now stands at 3,42,46,157. On October 27, the country recorded 13.45k new cases and 585 new deaths. The difference between new cases reported in the last seven days and the preceding seven days in India is -2%, while the world average is +4%.

New coronavirus variant

The latest mutation of the coronavirus variant, AY4.2, which has been linked to a rise in cases in the United Kingdom, is ‘very infrequent’ in India, according to a weekly report by the India SARS-CoV-2 Genome Consortium (INSACOG), the body that tracks the emergence of new variants.

Cases escalate in states

In Haryana, coronavirus cases in Faridabad, have witnessed a slight increase as compared to other districts of Haryana during the past few days. In Gurugram,

a slight increase in new COVID-19 cases has spurred the health department to issue a stay-at-home advisory for people who may be vulnerable to the infection.

In Gujarat’s Vadodra, for the first time after September 4, the city and district registered five new COVID-19 cases within 24 hours.

Karnataka has reported cases of the new COVID-19 variant AY.4, following which the state government is mulling to impose fresh guidelines.

Maharashtra recorded 1,485 new cases and 38 people died due to coronavirus for the second day in a row.

The Rajasthan government has expressed concern over the new COVID variant.

All over the world….

The Ukrainian capital Keiv will tighten lockdown restrictions due to a spike in coronavirus cases. As Russia reported record numbers of daily coronavirus cases and deaths, Moscow shut down non-essential services for 11 days to combat the surge in infections.

In China, where the COVID-19 infection first emerged- the third city went under lockdown to tackle COVID-19 numbers. The resurgence prompted officials this week to lock down Lanzhou city-with a population of over four million -and Ejin in the Inner Mongolia region.

Europe stood out as the only major region worldwide to report an increase in both coronavirus cases and deaths over the last week, with double-digit percentage increases in each, WHO said.

As for Asia, Singapore’s health ministry is looking into an “unusual surge” in infections after the city-state reported 5,324 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the most since the beginning of the pandemic.