No clustering of COVID cases in India, hospitalisation due to XBB variant very low; says INSACOG chief

Dr NK Arora, co-chair of India’s genomic surveillance programme

Attributing the continued rise in new cases to the ‘infectious’ sub-variant XBB1.16, NK Arora, chief of INSACOG, India’s coronavirus genomic surveillance programme, on April 6 said there were no new clusters of cases observed in the country.

“There is no clustering of cases in the current scenario. The XBB variant is an infectious variant, and 90 percent of COVID samples are of the XBB variant. The subvariant XBB 1.16 is almost in 60 percent of the samples,” Arora told Moneycontrol.

The INSACOG chief said that the rate of hospitalisation has remained very low compared to the case rise.

“If you see the rise in cases, from 150 cases per day to nearly 5,000 cases per day, we have seen a 30 times rise in the detection rate in the last eight weeks. Fortunately, we are not seeing a similar rise in hospitalisation; patient admission during this period has been minimal,” he added.

India reported 5,335 new COVID cases on April 6. This is the highest single-day rise since September 23, 2022.

The active caseload in the country stood at 25,587, with most cases being reported from Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi and Gujarat.

Arora, who also heads the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) also said that the XBB variant and its sub-lineages were now being detected from the sewage samples, indicating its prevalence in the community.

The INSACOG co-chair said the data analysis of breakthrough infections showed 20 to 40 percent of people who have taken precautionary doses were also contracting COVID.

“There is an increase in the number of breakthrough infections taking place in India right now. The elderly with comorbidities might be at some risk,” he said.

Asked about states making masks mandatory, Arora said, “Masks should be used by three categories: those who are sick, healthcare workers performing duties in hospitals, and people with co-morbid conditions when they are in crowded places.”

Arora said state governments should be enhancing focused testing of patients having symptoms of flu or influenza.

“We should be increasing COVID testing. It has stayed between one to one-and-a-half lakhs. The number of tests should increase. States haven’t been increasing testing, they have been told to increase testing,” he added.

The comments from Arora come at a time when LocalCircles, a community social media platform, in a report said three out of four people who experienced Covid-19 symptoms in the last month did not undergo Covid-19 testing.

The report by LocalCircles suggested that the number of COVID-19 cases in India may be underreported by 300 percent.

The researchers reached out to over 11,000 citizens across 303 districts in the country, with 66 percent of the respondents being men and 34 percent women.

According to the survey, the respondents were asked about their COVID-19 testing practices.

Nearly, 76 percent with COVID symptoms confirmed that they had not taken a COVID test.

According to the survey only 12 percent admitted to taking the RT-PCR test, and another 12 percent said they had taken both the RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Test.