COVID-19 pandemic in India
The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2. As of, according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the world with reported cases of COVID-19 infection and the third-highest number of COVID-19 deaths at deaths. In October 2021, the World Health Organization estimated 4.7 million excess deaths, both directly and indirectly related to COVID-19 to have taken place in India.
The first cases of COVID-19 in India were reported on 30 January 2020 in three towns of Kerala, among three Indian medical students who had returned from Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic. Lockdowns were announced in Kerala on 23 March, and in the rest of the country on 25 March. Infection rates started to drop in September. Daily cases peaked mid-September with over 90,000 cases reported per-day, dropping to below 15,000 in January 2021. A second wave beginning in March 2021 was much more devastating than the first, with shortages of vaccines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and other medical supplies in parts of the country. By late April, India led the world in new and active cases. On 30 April 2021, it became the first country to report over 400,000 new cases in a 24-hour period. Experts stated that the virus may reach an endemic stage in India rather than completely disappear; in late August 2021, Soumya Swaminathan said India may be in some stage of endemicity where the country learns to live with the virus.
India began its vaccination programme on 16 January 2021 with AstraZeneca vaccine and the indigenous Covaxin. Later, Sputnik V and the Moderna vaccine was approved for emergency use too. On 30 January 2022, India announced that it administered about 1.7 billion doses of vaccines and more than 720 million people were fully vaccinated.
Timeline
2020
On 12 January 2020, the WHO confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.On 30 January 2020, India reported its first case of COVID-19 in Thrissur, Kerala, which rose to three cases by 3 February 2020; all were students returning from Wuhan. Apart from these, no significant rise in transmissions was observed in February. On 4 March 22 new cases were reported, including 14 infected members of an Italian tourist group. Transmissions increased over the month after several people with travel history to affected countries, and their contacts, tested positive. On 12 March, a 76-year-old man, with a travel history to Saudi Arabia, became the first COVID-19 fatality of India.
A Sikh preacher, who had a travel history to Italy and Germany, turned into a superspreader by attending a Sikh festival in Anandpur Sahib during 10–12 March. Over 40,000 people in 20 villages in Punjab were quarantined on 27 March to contain the spread. On 31 March, a Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation event in Delhi, which had taken place earlier in March, emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot. On 2 May, around 4,000 stranded pilgrims returned from Hazur Sahib in Nanded, Maharashtra to Punjab. Many of them tested positive, including 27 bus drivers and conductors who had been part of the transport arrangement.
In July 2020, it was estimated based on antibody tests that at least 57% of the inhabitants of Mumbai's slums may have been infected with COVID-19 at some point.
A government panel on COVID-19 stated in October 2020 that the pandemic had peaked in India, and could come under control by February 2021. This prediction was based on a mathematical simulation referred to as the "Indian Supermodel", assuming that India reaches herd immunity. That month, a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, Lineage B.1.617, was detected in the country.
2021: Second wave
India began its vaccination programme on 16 January 2021. On 19 January 2021, nearly a year after the first reported case in the country, Lakshadweep became the last region of India to report its first case. By February 2021, daily cases had fallen to 9,000 per-day. However, by early-April 2021, a major second wave of infections took hold in the country with destructive consequences; on 9 April, India surpassed 1 million active cases, and by 12 April, India overtook Brazil as having the second-most COVID-19 cases worldwide. By late April, India passed 2.5 million active cases and was reporting an average of 300,000 new cases and 2,000 deaths per-day. Some analysts feared this was an undercount. On 30 April, India reported over 400,000 new cases and over 3,500 deaths in one day.Multiple factors have been proposed to have potentially contributed to the , including highly-infectious variants of concern such as Lineage B.1.617, a lack of preparations as temporary hospitals were often dismantled after cases started to decline, and new facilities were not built, and health and safety precautions being poorly-implemented or enforced during weddings, festivals, sporting events, state and local elections in which politicians and activists have held in several states, and in public places. An economic slowdown put pressure on the government to lift restrictions, and there had been a feeling of exceptionalism based on the hope that India's young population and childhood immunisation scheme would blunt the impact of the virus. Models may have underestimated projected cases and deaths due to the under-reporting of cases in the country.
Due to high demand, the vaccination programme began to be hit with supply issues; exports of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine were suspended to meet domestic demand, there have been shortages of the raw materials required to manufacture vaccines domestically, while hesitancy and a lack of knowledge among poorer, rural communities has also impacted the programme.
The second wave placed a major strain on the healthcare system, including a shortage of liquid medical oxygen due to ignored warnings which began in the first wave itself, logistic issues, and a lack of cryogenic tankers. On 23 April, Modi met via video conference with liquid oxygen suppliers including Reliance, SAIL, JSW, Tata Steel, JSPL, AMNS, LINDE, INOX Air Products and Air Water Jamshedpur, where he acknowledged the need to "provide solutions in a very short time", and acknowledged efforts such as increases in production, and the use of rail, and air transport to deliver oxygen supplies. A large number of new oxygen plants were announced; the installation burden being shared by the center, coordination with foreign countries with regard to oxygen plants received in the form of aid, and DRDO. A number of countries sent emergency aid to India in the form of oxygen supplies, medicines, raw material for vaccines and ventilators. This reflected a policy shift in India, as comparable aid offers had been rejected during the past sixteen years.
The number of new cases had begun to steadily drop by late-May; on 25 May, the country reported 195,994 new cases—its lowest daily increase since 13 April. However, the mortality rate has remained high; by 24 May, India recorded over 300,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19. Around 100,000 deaths had occurred in the last 26 days, and 50,000 in the last 12. In May 2021, WHO declared that two variants first found in India will be referred to as 'Delta' and 'Kappa'. The state of Karnataka announced a COVID-19 memorial later that spring, to honour healthcare professionals who had succumbed to the virus.
On 25 August 2021, Soumya Swaminathan said that India "may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low level transmission or moderate level transmission going on" but nothing as severe as before, in other words India is learning to live with the virus.
India announced a mandatory 10-day quarantine on travellers arriving from United Kingdom irrespective of their vaccination status starting 4 October 2021 after United Kingdom also put the same restrictions on travellers from India by not recognizing India's vaccine certificate. On 8 October the United Kingdom opened up the restrictions on travelers from 47 countries and locations including India.
2022
By March, India had just 22,487 cases across the country. With 58.8% population fully vaccinated and 70% having received at least one dose opening up post-pandemic has been steady. Buoyed by the success of its vaccination program among senior citizens, adults, and adolescents, the vaccination program is now inoculating children in the 12-15 age group. Further, the central government has urged state governments to end all COVID curbs except masks and social distancing. International flights were resumed on 27 March after a gap of two years.2023
On 22 March 2023, Prime Minister Modi held a high-level meeting to discuss the nation's preparedness for a new wave of infections, potentially driven by the newly detected SARS-CoV-2 strain, XBB.1.16. Active cases had reached a 5-month high as of 23 March and came amid an ongoing H3N2 influenza outbreak, prompting officials to determine the readiness of the healthcare system and its logistical needs. In response to the rising number of cases, some hospitals reopened Covid wards that had previously been shuttered following a yearlong lull in infections.In August, a new subvariant of Omicron, named Eris was detected in the state of Maharashtra with cases increasing in a few cities.
While in December, the JN.1 variant, believed to be a descendant of Omicron subvariant known as BA.2.86 or Pirola, arrived in the southern state Kerala with an RT-PCR-positive sample from Karakulam in Thiruvananthapuram district.
Response
Health care and testing
The Union Health Ministry's war room and policy making team in New Delhi decide how coronavirus should be tackled in the country, and consists of the ministry's Emergency Medical Response Unit, the Central Surveillance Unit, the National Centre for Disease Control and experts from three government hospitals among others. In March 2020, India's strategy was focused on cluster-containment, similar to how India contained previous epidemics, as well as "breaking the chain of transmission". 52 labs were named capable of virus testing by 13 March.On 14 March 2020, scientists at the National Institute of Virology isolated a strain of the novel coronavirus. India was the fifth country to successfully obtain a pure sample of the virus; isolation of the virus would help towards expediting the development of drugs, vaccines and rapid diagnostic kits in the country. NIV shared two SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences with GISAID. In May, the NIV introduced another test kit for rapid testing.