weekly decrease of 27% Current surge of COVI cases may have peaked.

With cases in the most recent seven days down 27% from the total for the week before, the current Covid-19 rise in the nation looks to have crested. This is the first drop in the seven-day case count in 13 weeks, dating back to the start of February. Other metrics including fatalities, open cases, and the positivity rate all showed a decline.

The number of deaths caused by the virus fell slightly; it went from 160 in the previous week to 131 in the seven days ending on Saturday. During the week of April 23–29, India reported 53,737 new cases, down from 73,873 the week before, when the current surge fueled by new sub-lineages of the Omicron variant appears to have peaked.

Last week, fewer new cases were reported in all major states, with the exception of a few in the east and northeast (April 23-29). Among them is Delhi, where the weekly case count decreased by almost halving from 5,893 to 10,831 between April 16 and 22. With 32 fatalities in the week as opposed to 35 the week before, the capital continues to report the second-highest number of cases in the nation and the biggest toll from the virus.

Kerala has again reported the largest number of cases, 11,726, over the preceding few weeks. However, the number was down 28% from the week before. Haryana (5,203, down 27%), Maharashtra (4,117, down 33%), Uttar Pradesh (3,507, down 36%), and Tamil Nadu (2,937, down 20%) all reported similar losses.

However, infections increased further in Jharkhand, Bengal (1,586, up from 1,087), Odisha (2,723, up from 3,218), and (491, from 283). However, in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, where infections had also seen a sharp increase recently, the number of cases dropped to 2,606 last week from 3,122 the week before.

The majority of states have seen a steady decline in cases, signalling that the present surge is clearly in retreat. By Saturday night, there were fewer than 50,000 active cases, down from a peak of about 68,000 on April 22. The percentage of samples that tested positive for Covid after seven days, or the seven-day test positivity rate, had also decreased to 4.8% on Saturday from 5.2% a week earlier.
While Delhi reported 32 deaths during the week that were associated with Covid, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh each reported 12 deaths. Both Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh reported 11 fatalities each.