India reported 908 new Covid cases, 2 deaths between June and July: WHO

New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) India has witnessed 908 new Covid-19 cases, and two deaths between June and July this year, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report on Wednesday.

The latest Covid epidemiological update by the UN body showed that between June 24 to July 21, an average of 17,358 specimens were tested for SARS-CoV-2 every week across 85 countries.

While new cases increased by 30 per cent, 26 per cent of deaths were reported worldwide during the period.

More than 1,86,000 new cases were reported across 96 countries and more than 2,800 new fatalities were reported across 35 countries.

The WHO noted that till July 21, more than “775 million confirmed cases and over seven million deaths have been reported globally since the beginning of the pandemic”.

Countries in the Americas and European region reported the highest hospitalisation and ICU admissions due to Covid infections.

In the South-East Asia region, the highest numbers of new cases and deaths were reported from Thailand (6,704 new cases and 35 new deaths), followed by India (908 new cases and 2 new deaths), and Bangladesh (372 new cases and 1 new death).

Further, the report noted that “globally, JN.1 is the most reported variant of interest (VOI), present in 135 countries”.

SARS-CoV-2 variants KP.3.1.1 and LB.1, both descendent lineages of JN.1 and variants under monitoring (VUMs) are also increasing their prevalence globally.

Meanwhile, several states in India are seeing an increase in Covid cases, as per the Union Health Ministry’s Covid dashboard.

Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, and West Bengal, are experiencing a positivity rate of over five per cent.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the highly transmissible KP.1 and KP.2 strains, which evolved from the JN.1 Omicron variant, are responsible for the surge in Covid cases in India.

However, there has been no increase in hospitalisations or severity of illness so far, Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda informed Parliament earlier this month.

Nadda noted that 824 cases of the Covid KP mutant strain were recorded until August 5.

Maharashtra had the highest number of cases with 417, followed by West Bengal with 157 and Uttarakhand with 64.