SHILLONG, Oct 24: With COVID-19 cases seeing a slight surge of late in India, especially in the wake of the detection of Omicron’s newly identified XBB strain, the situation is far from worrisome in Meghalaya.
According to an official from the Health department, Meghalaya’s COVID-19 positivity rate in the past one week is 2.62 per cent with 13 fresh cases and one fatality.
Similarly, whilst 497 tests have been conducted, 16 people have recovered in the last seven days.
As of now, the state has 24 active COVID-19 cases.
When enquired if enough tests are being conducted in the state, the official said that the mechanism has now changed, and people are only tested for COVID-19 if they are symptomatic or they voluntarily want to undergo a test for the same.
It is pertinent to note that health concerns have risen in the country after World Health Organization Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan last week said that some countries may see “another wave of infections” with the XBB subvariant of Omicron.
“There are over 300 subvariants of Omicron. I think the one that is concerning right now is XBB, which is a recombinant virus. We had seen some recombinant viruses earlier. It is very immune-evasive, which means it can overcome the antibodies. So slightly that we may see another wave of infections in some countries because of XBB,” she had said.
Last week, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also convened a high-level meeting with senior health officials regarding the emergence of Omicron’s new sub-variants. The meeting concluded with the decision to continue the use of masks and COVID-appropriate behaviour across the country.
Meanwhile, India on Monday reported 1,334 fresh cases in the last 24 hours.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed that the country has observed 1,557 recoveries from the COVID-19 infection in
the last 24 hours, which stand at a current recovery rate of 98.76 per cent, taking the total recoveries of this viral disease to 4,40,91,906.
The country’s current active caseload stands at 23,193 with active cases now constituting 0.05 per cent of India’s total positive cases.
The country is currently observing a daily positivity rate of 1.52 per cent and a weekly positivity rate of 0.95 per cent.
As per the Health Ministry, a total of 219.56 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses — 95 crore second doses and 22.03 crore precaution doses — have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive, of which 42,864 were jabbed in the last 24 hours alone. (With agency inputs)
