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SHILLONG, October 24: With COVID-19 cases seeing a slight increase of late in India, especially after the discovery of Omicron’s newly identified XBB strain, the situation is far from dire in Meghalaya.
According to an official of the Health Department, Meghalaya’s positive rate of COVID-19 in the past week is 2.62 percent with 13 fresh cases and one death.
Similarly, while 497 tests were conducted, 16 people recovered in the last seven days.
So far, the state has 24 active COVID-19 cases.
Asked if enough tests are being done in the state, the official said that the mechanism has now changed, and people are tested for COVID-19 only if they are symptomatic or they voluntarily want to undergo a test for the same.
It is pertinent to note that health concerns have increased in the country after World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said last week that some countries may see “another wave of infections” with Omicron’s XBB subvariant.
“There are more than 300 subvariants of Omicron. I think the one that is relevant now is XBB, which is a recombinant virus. We have seen some recombinant viruses before. It is very immune-evasive, which means it can overcome the antibodies. So little that we might see another wave of infections in some countries because of XBB,” she said.
Last week, the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also convened a high-level meeting with senior health officials regarding the emergence of the new sub-variants of Omicron. The meeting ended with the decision to continue the use of masks and COVID-appropriate behavior across the country.
Meanwhile, India on Monday reported 1,334 fresh cases in the last 24 hours.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported that the country observed 1,557 recoveries from the infection of COVID-19 in
the last 24 hours, which stands at a current recovery rate of 98.76 percent, taking the total recoveries from this viral disease to 4,40,91,906.
The country’s current active caseload is 23,193 and active cases now constitute 0.05 percent of India’s total positive cases.
The country currently observes a daily positive rate of 1.52 percent and a weekly positive rate of 0.95 percent.
According to the Health Ministry, a total of 219.56 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses – 95 crore second doses and 22.03 crore preventive doses – have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive, of which 42,864 were injected in the last 24 hours alone. (With agency inserts)
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