Covid 4th wave: 35% jump in India's weekly cases, doctors advise mask mandate for Delhi

After 11 consecutive weeks of declining Covid-19 cases trend, the past week is seeing a sharp increase in infections. In the last seven days, the number of new Covid-19 cases has increased by 35%. The districts adjacent to Delhi - Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have seen the maximum increase in new cases of Covid infection.

However, the total number of cases of Covid-19 is still low as of now. India reported about 6,610 fresh cases of Covid infection in the week ended Sunday (April11-17), up from 4,900 in the previous week. Adding to the figures of Kerala, about 7,010 new cases of Covid-19 infection were registered in the last week.

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Kerala has stopped releasing Covid data from the current week. Last week (April 4-10) Kerala reported 2,185 new cases which was almost a third of the total new Covid-19 cases found in the country.

Covid deaths on a decline

Deaths due to Covid-19 infection continue to decline in the country. Only 27 deaths were recorded during this week, which is the lowest in 2 years since March 23-29, 2020. A total of 54 deaths were recorded in the previous week, of which 13 were in Kerala.

New cases more than doubled within a week in all 3 states that saw an increase in infections. Delhi recorded the highest ever number of new cases at 2,307, which is 145% higher than last week's 943. More than a third of all the cases reported in the country have been found in Delhi.

Doctors advise for Delhi amid case surge

Doctors in the national capital on Sunday urged the authorities to make the wearing of masks mandatory to help check the spread of the viral infection. They also asked people developing Covid-like symptoms to get themselves tested and isolate themselves to prevent the spread.

Doctors at leading government and private hospitals emphasised that there was a need to increase testing in the wake of the spike in cases, even as they said that 'no drastic restrictions' were needed as of now.

The Delhi government had on April 2 stopped the imposition of fines for not wearing masks.

Most new cases in NCR

In Haryana, the weekly cases rose to 1,119, an 118% increase from the previous week's tally of 514. Uttar Pradesh registered an increase of 141% with 540 cases this week, as against 224 in the previous week. In both the states, most of the new cases of Covid infection are coming from NCR cities adjoining Delhi like Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad.

Elsewhere, the weekly cases in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan remained more or less unchanged.

Gujarat and Rajasthan register low cases

In Gujarat, there has been a slight decline in new Covid-19 cases this week as compared to last week. 110 cases have been registered in the state this week, while 115 cases were registered in the last week. There was a slight increase in Rajasthan and 90 new cases were registered this week as compared to 67 last week.

Since the peak of the third wave of Covid-19 in January 17-23, there has been a steady decline in weekly cases in the country. Despite the increase in infections this week, the total number of Covid-19 cases in India has remained at the level almost two years ago, when the country's lockdown began.

Due to the spike in the cases in the three northern states, the active cases of the virus in the country have reached around 12,000. This is an increase of about 1,000 over the previous week.