'No need to panic over rising Covid cases, no new variant of concern found'

New Delhi: The increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country over the last few days should not be a cause for panic, health experts said on Saturday, highlighting that no new variant of concern has been found and the rise so far is limited to a few districts.

They also pointed out towards non-adherence of Covid-appropriate behaviour and people being unenthusiastic about getting the booster dose, which possibly has increased the pool of population susceptible to the infection.

Seventeen districts in the country, including seven in Kerala and five in Mizoram, are reporting a weekly Covid positivity rate of more than 10 per cent, while in 24 districts, including seven in Kerala and four each in Maharashtra and Mizoram, the weekly positivity rate is between five and 10 per cent, an official source said.

"First of all, we have not found any new variant of concern. India now has BA.4 and BA.5, in addition to BA.2, which have a slightly higher transmissibility as compared to the other Omicron sub-lineages," Dr N K Arora, chairman of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) said.

In addition, there is increased mobility due to the summer holidays, easing of travel restrictions both nationally and internationally and full-fledged opening up of economic activities, because of which there has been a spread of the infection among vulnerable individuals.

"There is another dimension to it and that is, the infection is limited to metros and big cities with a high population density. The important thing is that most of the people who are getting infected these days are immunised and have common cold and a mild influenza-like illness.

"There is no need to panic, but one must remember that Covid is very much around us and we need to adhere to Covid-appropriate behaviour and particularly, avoid crowded places and also make masks an integral part of our day-to-day living," Dr Arora said.

With a single-day rise of 8,329 cases, India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 4,32,13,435 on Friday, according to the Union health ministry. The top 10 states and Union territories of concern in terms of an increasing positivity rate are Kerala, Mizoram, Goa, Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Sikkim, Chandigarh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.

Six states and Union territories -- Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Haryana and Tamil Nadu -- have more than 1,000 active Covid cases.