Kolkata: After two months, the Covid positivity rate in Kolkata has dropped to 5%. Health officials expect the positivity rate to come down from the baseline of 5% in the next few days. Currently, most of the hospitals across the city have casual Covid cases among their patients. Doctors said that once the positivity rate goes below 5%, the number of emergent Covid cases would hardly be found. The city had a weekly Covid positivity rate of 5% on Sunday.
Covid cases started increasing in the first week of March itself. It was a slow start to the surge with the city taking almost a month for the positivity rate to cross the 5% threshold. Thereafter, the bounce accelerated after reaching 6% in the first week of April and reached 25% on 7th May.
“We are very near the end of this current surge. The surge can be stopped due to good vaccination coverage, herd immunity and a less-potent variant of the virus. We need to keep an eye out for any other new variant of the virus,” a the health official said.
“More than 90% of the patients who required hospitalization for Covid this time were older people with comorbidities or who were severely immunocompromised. Now the number of infections even among this vulnerable group is overwhelming There has been a shortage. Only a handful of them are under hospital care,” the official said.
The state health department has described around 16 deaths as Covid-19 even though all of them had various co-morbidities. This time the surge was primarily driven by Omicron’s XBB 1.5 sub-variant, also known as the Kraken variant.
“It is now suspected that the current spike is at its tail end. Until a new variant emerges, Covid-19 should not be a major concern. During every spike in cases, the vulnerable section will be affected. There is a need to be vigilant.” Guard,” said a doctor from a government institute.
Covid cases started increasing in the first week of March itself. It was a slow start to the surge with the city taking almost a month for the positivity rate to cross the 5% threshold. Thereafter, the bounce accelerated after reaching 6% in the first week of April and reached 25% on 7th May.
“We are very near the end of this current surge. The surge can be stopped due to good vaccination coverage, herd immunity and a less-potent variant of the virus. We need to keep an eye out for any other new variant of the virus,” a the health official said.
“More than 90% of the patients who required hospitalization for Covid this time were older people with comorbidities or who were severely immunocompromised. Now the number of infections even among this vulnerable group is overwhelming There has been a shortage. Only a handful of them are under hospital care,” the official said.
The state health department has described around 16 deaths as Covid-19 even though all of them had various co-morbidities. This time the surge was primarily driven by Omicron’s XBB 1.5 sub-variant, also known as the Kraken variant.
“It is now suspected that the current spike is at its tail end. Until a new variant emerges, Covid-19 should not be a major concern. During every spike in cases, the vulnerable section will be affected. There is a need to be vigilant.” Guard,” said a doctor from a government institute.