(TibetanReview.net, Apr03’22) – China, from where the global pandemic was unleashed in late 2019, reported a record 13,146 local Covid-19 cases today, resulting in millions of people being put under lockdown, while India this morning reported just 1,096 cases over the past 24 hours and the exile Tibetan administration (CTA) reported zero Tibetan cases in India and Nepal over the past one week as of Apr 1.
The Covid-19 taskforce of the CTA said at its 104th weekly briefing that the tally of cases among Tibetans in India and Nepal had therefore remained unchanged at 9,150 cases, with no active cases, 8,982 recovered and 168 dead.
Meanwhile India’s Covid tally now stands at 43,028,131, with 98.76% having recovered, 0.03% being active and 1.21% having died, according to its health ministry data updated this morning.
The country’s daily positivity rate stands at 0.24% and the weekly at 0.23%.
In China, while Jilin Province, one of the severest-hit regions, had successfully curbed the epidemic, the infection curve had not seen signs of decline, and a new Omicron variant mutation was detected in East China’s Jiangsu Province, neighboring Shanghai, where the mass majority of cases in China had been found in recent days, reported China’s official globaltimes.cn Apr 3.
Speaking of the situation in Shanghai, Chinese Vice Premier, Sun Chunlan, has stressed that the dynamic zero-Covid strategy must be upheld with resolute and swift action, while recognizing the enormous challenges that the mega city of 25 million faced in both maintaining the normal operation of its core functions and battling the Omicron variant outbreak.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization (WHO) has said in its latest report Apr 2 that a new Covid mutant `XE` had been found in the UK, noting that it may be more transmissible than the BA.2 sublineage of Covid-19. It is a recombinant of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 sublineages of Covid-19, the ANI new agency Apr 2 cited the WHO as saying.
“Early-day estimates indicate a community growth rate advantage of ~10% as compared to BA.2. XE belongs to the Omicron variant until significant differences in transmission and disease characteristics, including severity, may be reported,” the WHO report was quoted as saying.