Covid-19 surge in Singapore, Hong Kong not a cause for concern in India: Health Ministry
Amid the latest surge in
Covid-19 cases in Singapore
and Hong Kong, a review meeting of experts from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Emergency Medical Relief (EMR) division, Disaster Management Cell, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and central government hospitals was held under the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) on Monday.
"The current
Covid-19
situation in India remains under control," the health ministry said in a statement. As of May 19, the number of active Covid-19 cases in India stands at 257. "Almost all of these cases are mild, with no hospitalisation required," it further said. The health ministry said they remain vigilant in monitoring the situation closely.
Coronavirus subvariant JN.1, responsible for the latest
Covid
surge in Singapore and Hong Kong, has been circulating in India for quite some time and there's nothing to worry as there is no evidence that the variants were more transmissible or severe, health experts told ET.
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LF.7 and NB.1.8, both offshoots of JN.1, are currently the most common variants, accounting for more than two-thirds of all sequenced cases in both Singapore and Hong Kong. The spike is being attributed to waning immunity.
The infection rate in Hong Kong has seen a sharp surge from 1.7% in mid of March to 11.4% now, according to the data by the Centre for Health Protection, under the department of health in Hong Kong.
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Gautam Menon, professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, said that India could see a rise in flu-like cases in the next few months.
"Singapore and Hong Kong are seeing a rise in cases of the variants LF.7 and NB.1.8, which are descended from the JN.1 strain. I think we can anticipate a rise in flu-like cases traceable to these variants in the next few months".
Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director-Max Healthcare & senior director-Institute of Internal Medicine, said the good news is that the present variant which is causing Covid in these countries is not much different from what we experienced during the last waves of Covid.
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