India reported 2,85,914 Covid cases on Wednesday with 665 deaths, as per the Health Ministry data. After the significant fall on Tuesday, the infections have risen from the previous day’s cases of 2.55 lakh. Delhi reported 7,498 cases till late in the evening on Wednesday with 29 deaths. The positivity rate in the city was more than 10 per cent with active cases at 38,315, as per the Government report. In Mumbai, the daily infections were at 1,858 with 13 deaths. Also, Kerala and Karnataka registered 49,717 and 48,905 cases respectively.  According to experts, the rapid variation in the daily infections does not reflect the true picture of the Covid situation in the country. As the Omicron variant is highly transmissible, a very large number of the population must be infected with the virus, the experts said. The daily numbers vary with the number of tests done each day. On Tuesday, India conducted 17.69 lakh tests with the daily positivity rate at 16.16 per cent and weekly positivity rate at 17.33 per cent.

“The daily cases are being reported on the basis of Covid tests conducted each day. They definitely show the trend but do not give the real picture of the current situation. In reality, more people would be infected with the virus but as the symptoms are mild and they are able to recover on their own, they are not going for tests,” Dr Manoj Upreti, Chief Medical Officer, Dehradun told BusinessLine. 

Meanwhile, top Virologist T Jacob John said that as the Omicron variant doesn’t cause Pneumonia, low oxygen level, and high case fatality rate, only those who get severely affected with the variant get themselves tested because of which the numbers are grossly underestimated. “If we had vaccinated a large number of the population, we wouldn’t have got the Omicron problem,” he further added. 

Gradual rise in daily Covid deaths

According to Upreti, the daily deaths are happening not because of the Covid but because of underlying health conditions like acute diabetes, heart disease, liver ailment among others. 

“When people with underlying health conditions like diabetes, liver problem, cancer or heart get tested Covid positive, even if they are asymptomatic, are immediately admitted into the ICU ward for a safer side. So most of these death cases due to comorbid conditions are included in the Covid deaths. Though in reality the real cause of death is not Covid,” Upreti stated.

However, John, who is a a retired professor and Head of the Departments of Clinical Virology and Microbiology at CMC Vellore, said that Covid disease does aggravate the co-morbid condition and leads to early death which could otherwise be delayed by giving protection through full vaccination or booster dose.

“Omicron disease makes comorbid conditions worse.People die predominantly with the combination of their own disease and the Omicron infection. But without Omicron or Covid they wouldn’t have died, so it is the immediate cause of death,” John said. He further added that full vaccination and timely booster dose could protect people with comorbid conditions from dying. 

“Public education about vaccination is very important in countering the misinformation in the social media about vaccination. There is nobody to counter the misinformation on social media,” John said. 

On Wednesday till 7:30 PM, India vaccinated 20.48 lakh beneficiaries till 7:30 PM aggregating to more than 163 crore inoculations done so far, as per the CoWIN Dashboard. So far, 4.36 crore children in the 15-17 age group have received their first dose of Covaxin. 

comment COMMENT NOW