Within a span of nine days, the number of active Covid cases in India exhibited a more than twofold increase, rising from 938 on December 11 to 1,970 on December 19. The government lab forum, Insacog, detected 19 instances of JN.1, a subvariant of Omicron, with Maharashtra reporting one case and Goa 18, reported Times of India.Intrestingly, for the first time since the drive began on Jan 16, 2021, zero vaccinations have been administered in India on Dec 19, 2023.
Earlier, Vipin M Vashishtha, former convenor of Indian Academy of Pediatrics and consultant pediatrician at the Mangla Hospital and Research Centre, Bijnor also pointed out that XBB.1.16 has a 140 percent growth advantage over XBB.1.5, making it more aggressive
As per the latest data by the health ministry, the death toll has increased to 5,30,929 with 13 deaths two each reported from Karnataka and Maharashtra, one each from Kerala and Punjab, and seven reconciled by Kerala
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 3.38 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 2.79 per cent. As many as 220.66 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive