Warning about new Covid variant ‘Arcturus’ causing carnage in India
A new Covid strain, dubbed ‘Arcturus’, is wreaking havoc in India.
Technically called Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, the new variant is fueling a new wave of Covid cases in the country with infections rising 13-fold over the past month.
The surge in cases prompted India’s Health Ministry to hold mock exercises this week to check how prepared hospitals are to deal with a potential influx of patients.
And some states have brought back face masks in public settings, for the first time in more than a year in some areas.
India’s health ministry said there were 40,215 active cases of Covid as of April 12, up by 3,122 in just one day.
The new Covid variant ‘Arcturus’ caused a huge increase in cases in India over the past month
While the rise is of some concern, it is still well below the devastating spate of cases the country experienced in 2021 from the Delta wave
Separate figures from the University of Oxford-run platform Our World in Data show that there were 3,108 new daily cases on April 4, up from 242 a month earlier.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently monitoring XBB.1.16, which was first discovered in late January. Officials said it had some worrying mutations.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Covid technical lead, said: ‘It has been in circulation for a few months.
“We haven’t seen a change in severity in individuals or populations, which is why we put these systems in place.
“It has one additional mutation in the spike protein that shows increased infectivity and possibly increased pathogenicity in lab studies.”
Dr. Van Kerkhove added that while XBB.1.16 had been detected in other countries, most of the sequences came from India, where it had replaced other variants.
She also said that no change in disease severity had been reported in XBB.1.16 infections to date.
Haryana, in northern India, has reintroduced masks in public places due to the ‘significant increase’ in Covid cases.
Veena George, health minister of the southern state of Kerela, reintroduced masks for pregnant women, the elderly and those with underlying conditions on Saturday.
On Monday and Tuesday, hospitals across India took part in mock drills to test their preparedness.
Officials have also told states to ramp up testing for the virus.
Analysts from the Office for National Statistics estimated that nearly 1.7 million Britons were carrying the virus on any given day of the week up to March 13. This is an increase of almost 14 percent compared to the previous week
The exercises and the return of masks are a stark reminder of how the country was devastated by the Delta Wave in 2021 with a total of 4.7 million additional deaths according to WHO estimates.
The Indian health system has been overwhelmed by a flurry of cases caused by that Covid variant, with some hospitals even running out of oxygen.