Cases in Sikkim Rising Like Never Before

A startling 322 cases of covid cases in Sikkim were reported on Wednesday, but even that figure is likely an undercount of the real number as the cases are rising day by day taking an active case to 1063 on Thursday which reported 294 cases.

On Wednesday there were 322 cases of the virus in the Sikkim, according to a Sikkim Health database. However, even that figure is likely a serious undercount of the true numbers of positive cases, due to the rising popularity of home tests and people who are infected but asymptomatic.

The seven-day rolling average of cases in Sikkim is also soaring to a new high of more than 1000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious Omicron variant which hasn’t been reported in Sikkim yet.

“It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen, even at the peak of the prior surges of Covid,” Ajay Agarwal, Senior Journalist at Sikkim told TsT while checking the database. 

Record case counts are being logged in states and districts across the Sikkim, including East Sikkim which reported double a hundred cases in last two days. In Gangtok, a large number of volunteers are helping Medical staff in hospitals, and South and west medical personnel have deployed to bolster the local health services.

Indian health experts urged everyone to prepare for severe disruptions in coming weeks as the surge threatened hospitals, schools, and other sectors impacting their daily lives.

“The month is going to be more serious,” one expert said. “Since every December-January months of the year seasonal flu happens and all of citizens is going to be pressured by due to this.”

On Thursday, confirmed infections climbed to an average of about 294 new cases today with a 17.8% positivity rate, compared to yesterday’s 322, January 12th, according to Sikkim Hospital reports. And East districts reported 200, and 45 in West and 40 in the south and 09 in the north each with 885 test done — reported that case numbers have gone up over the past two weeks in Sikkim.

At the same time, parts of the state are running up against deep vaccine resistance for children below 19, while the highly contagious mutant version of the coronavirus that was first detected only is accounting for an ever-larger share of infections in Gangtok and Namchi together.

Also Read| Sikkim Govt announced new covid restrictions