India sees uptick in Covid, cases mostly mild

New Delhi: Most of the Covid cases reported in various states are mild in nature and the patients are under home care, official sources said amid a rise in cases in some countries.

The matter regarding Covid-19 cases was reviewed by the Union Health Secretary on Saturday with the Secretary, Department of Health Research (DHR) and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), DGHS and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) etc, they said.

Some Covid-19 cases have been reported mainly from States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, etc. Sources that there is a robust pan India system for surveillance of respiratory illnesses including Covid-19 through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and ICMR's pan India respiratory virus sentinel surveillance network.

"It is observed that most of these cases are mild and under home care," an official source said.

"It may also be mentioned that there have been some media reports regarding increase in Covid-19 cases in Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries in the recent past. It has been ascertained from the respective National IHR focal points that there is no indication that the circulating variants are more transmissible or cause more severe disease compared to the previously circulating variants," the source said

The sources asserted that the Union Health Ministry remains vigilant and, through its multiple agencies, is proactively monitoring the situation closely.

Meanwhile, according to the INSACOG data, one case of the newly emerging Covid-19 variant NB.1.8.1 and four cases of LF.7 have been detected in India.

As of May 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies LF.7 and NB.1.8 subvariants as Variants Under Monitoring (VUMs), not as Variants of Concern (VOCs) or Variants of Interest (VOIs). But these are the variants reportedly driving the rise in COVID cases in China and parts of Asia.

In India, the most common variant remains JN.1, comprising 53 per cent of samples tested, followed by BA.2 (26 per cent) and other Omicron sublineages (20 per cent), according to INSACOG.

As of May 19, the country had 257 active cases. Delhi recorded 23 new cases, Andhra Pradesh reported four in the last 24 hours, Telangana confirmed one, and a nine-month-old in Bengaluru tested positive amid a gradual rise over the past 20 days. Kerala reported 273 cases in May alone.

Officials in several states reported more cases on Saturday, May 24.

In Maharashtra, a Covid19 patient suffering from severe diabetes died of comorbidities in Thane while eight new cases of the viral infection were reported in the city on Saturday, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) said.

Two men were detected with coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh's commercial capital Indore. In Uttarakhand, a 57-year-old tourist from Gujarat in Rishikesh and a woman doctor from AIIMS Rishikesh have been found infected with Covid.

All 23 recent Covid-19 patients in Delhi experienced only mild symptoms and were under home quarantine, said the health officials in the Delhi government.

A 55-year-old woman was placed under home quarantine after she tested positive for Covid-19 in Noida on Delhi's outskirts.

Telangana Health Minister Damodar Rajanarasimh, convened a high-level review meeting to assess the current COVID-19 scenario in the state and the preparedness of the health department.

A Covid-19 case was reported in Hyderabad and the patient, a pulmonologist, has fully recovered, officials said on Friday.