New Delhi: India reported a sharp rise in covid cases with the country seeing 12,591 infections and 40 deaths in a single day, according to the health ministry's update on Thursday.
The daily positivity rate has climbed to 5.46%, while the weekly positivity rate stood at 5.32%. The number of active cases rose to 65,286.
In the last three years of the pandemic, India has reported more than 44.9 million cases and 531230 covid related deaths. According to epidemiologists, covid cases have been doubling every four to five days.
Scientists have said that the XBB.1.16 variant of coronavirus is responsible for the current surge. But the infection is supposed to be milder in nature and may not lead to a rise in hospitalisation rate as Indians have likely developed hybrid immunity due to vaccination and natural exposure to the disease.