After the third wave powered by Omicron Sub-lineage BA.2 It peaked with over 0.33 million cases in a day in late January this year, a slight increase in the number of daily cases reported in the first fortnight of June and touched over 13,200 cases in the last one week. There has been a slight increase. 17 June. But the rate of growth has been small and confined to a few states and a few major cities. The rate of increase of active cases has also been low. While the sub-lineage BA.2 is still the dominant strain in India, BA.4 and BA.5 Appears to be the cause of new cases. The slight increase in testing in the last one week could be a reason for the high number of cases reported. The seven-day average test positivity rate jumped from less than 1% in early June to over 2% by mid-June and has since been rising to 2.7% on June 20. The increase in the number of daily tests will result in more cases. being traced. But with a large percentage of the adult population fully vaccinated and a large percentage also infected, more attention should be paid to hospitalizations and deaths and not to daily infections. There has been a slight increase in hospitalizations in some states, but there is no cause for concern. However, there has been no increase in daily deaths. The small bump in daily cases seen in some states for the past three weeks therefore does not mark the start of a new wave.
That said, the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages are rapidly spreading to more countries in Europe with a concomitant increase in cases. The BA.5 sub-lineage has become dominant in Portugal, causing an increase in daily infections, hospitalizations and even deaths, despite very high primary and booster dose vaccination coverage; The reason for the increase in deaths is not known. With both BA.4 and BA.5 having higher communicability and avoidance of vaccination and higher immunity from earlier infection, including the BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron sub-lineages, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control named them as variants. designated as. concern in mid-May; WHO has also given the same designation. On 13 June, the ECDC warned that these sub-lineages would take effect across Europe, leading to an increase in daily cases. However, it notes that based on limited data, the two sub-lineages BA.1 and BA.2 do not appear to be associated with increased disease severity compared to the Omicron sub-variants. Given the greater communicability and avoidance of BA.5 of BA.4 and BA.5, the sub-lineage may also be dominant in India, especially as COVID-appropriate behavior is now poor. While the two sub-lineages may not increase death, the risk of long-term complications cannot be ignored, even in young and healthy people when infected. Masks should be made mandatory, especially in public and closed places with poor ventilation.