India has experienced its highest number of Covid infections in months, reportedly caused by a new variant, with almost 8,000 new cases reported on Wednesday.
Mock drills were carried out in hospitals and some states reintroduced mask mandates over concerns at the increase, with more than 40,000 active cases across India, the highest since last year.
A new variant of Omicron, named XBB.1.16, is thought to be responsible. It was first detected in India in January and is believed to be more transmissible than previous variants. However, there appears to be no higher severity or risk of hospital admission than previous Omicron variants, with most people reporting mild symptoms.
The World Health Organization (WHO) described variant XBB.1.16 as “one to watch” and said it was the dominant strain in India after being in circulation for the past few months.
The variant was especially prevalent in Delhi, which reported more than 1,000 new cases on Wednesday and had a 26% positivity rate.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) said the increase was also because of complacent behaviour, including lax use of masks in public spaces. “Many people lowered their guard against coronavirus, and the low rate of testing could be the driving force behind the surge,” said the association. “Rising cases reflect that Covid has not gone, it is still around, and so we need to take precautions.”
In light of the increase in cases, the Serum Institute of India said it would restart manufacturing the Covid vaccine Covidshield, which in the UK is known as Oxford/AstraZeneca, to provide additional boosters, and would produce 6-7m extra doses to build up India’s stock.
This week the health ministry implemented a mock drill in hospitals to check on the arrangements for testing and treating Covid patients. During the second wave of Covid, which hit India in March 2021, hospitals were overwhelmed, with nationwide shortages of beds, medicines and oxygen, resulting in large numbers of deaths.
Officially, India’s death toll from Covid-19 is 530,901, but according to the WHO as well as scientists and analysts, this is a significant undercount, with officials accused of covering up the true extent of the deaths. The WHO estimates about 4.7 million people had died of Covid in India by the end of 2021, nearly 10 times more than official records.
