Over 23,000 New COVID-19 Cases, Infections Rising Across States, Are We Seeing A Second Wave?
It has been a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 a global pandemic and the world is still struggling with the outbreak, with no possible end to it in sight at least in the near future.
India has been the second-worst hit country due to COVID-19 after the US. And making matters worse for the country is another surge in the number of new daily infections.
In the past few weeks, almost every day the country had been recording an increase in the number of new infections, and in the past 24 hours, 23,285 new Covid-19 cases were reported from across India.
Though 23,000 cases in a day is far less than the over 97,000 infections the country saw in a day in September 2020, the rise of new COVID-19 infections is a matter of concern.
Since October 2020 the number of new COVID-19 infections had been falling drastically, to the relief of everyone, and on 1 February 2021, just 8,635 cases were recorded in India, the lowest daily tally in eight months.
With the vaccine rollout gaining momentum, many were convinced that India had the pandemic under control.
But just one month later, the daily tally has crossed 23,000 and is likely to go up in the coming days.
The increase is being reported in six states, including Maharashtra where authorities have announced a weeklong lockdown in the densely populated Nagpur city next week.?
Maharashtra, the worst-COVID-19 affected state recorded 14,317 new infections - its highest number of new cases this year on Thursday.
In Delhi too, there has been a fresh spike in the number of cases. The national capital on Thursday reported 409 new infections of Covid-19, the highest single-day increase in cases in over two months.
However, in Kerala, the second-worst hit state, the number of new infections is slowing down.
The rise in the number of new cases has triggered fears of a second wave of COVID-19 in India.
Several countries around the world have seen a second over even a third wave of COVID-19, due to the mutations of the virus.
Mutant, much deadlier strains that can escape the existing vaccines are a challenge around the world and India is no different.
Though several mutations of Sars COVo2 have been reported in India, the government has said that it is not the reason behind the spike in new infections across the country.
