India’s count of active Covid-19 patients rose to 7,026 on Wednesday, more than double the nationwide count three weeks ago, but the coronavirus variant fuelling this rise appears to be causing mild symptoms in the vast majority of patients, doctors have said.

The evidence based on limited data suggests that while the variant named XBB.1.16 has the capacity to spread fast, it causes similar patterns of disease as its earlier siblings, all lineages of the omicron variant that had driven India’s third Covid-19 wave last year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a special meeting on Wednesday to review the status and preparedness of the public health response to the rise in Covid-19 cases occurring against the backdrop of a spike in influenza cases since January.

The daily count of active Covid-19 cases has increased every day since March 1, rising from 2,525 on March 2 to 7,026 on March 21. The Union health ministry on Wednesday documented 1,134 new Covid-19 infections over the previous 24 hours but doctors suspect the actual count is unknown because many patients with mild symptoms do not test themselves.

Modi, addressing the meeting attended by officials from the health ministry and other government departments, emphasised the need for enhanced surveillance and testing and the adoption of Covid-19 appropriate precautions such as wearing masks in hospital premises. He said mask wearing was also advisable when senior citizens and those with underlying chronic disorders visit crowded areas.

A nationwide survey conducted by Local Circles, a community social media platform, based on a sample of 9,600 respondents has found that only one in 20 citizens surveyed said mask compliance was effective in their locality.

The counts of active Covid-19 patients rose on Wednesday in 22 states, the largest increases in Maharashtra (125), Gujarat (106) and Delhi (61), the nationwide count rising by 467.

An analysis of the medical records of 50 patients infected with XBB.1.16 has shown that most patients had only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all and had been detected as Covid-19 positive incidentally during other medical procedures.

One patient among the 50 had died, according to the analysis by a team of doctors led by Rajesh Karyakarte, professor of microbiology at the BJ Medical College, Pune, that had identified XBB.1.16 earlier this month.

The one patient in the sample who died had serious underlying chronic conditions. “We cannot say for sure that XBB.1.16 had caused the death because the patient already had debilitating conditions,” Karyakarte said.

Studies by Karyakarte and his colleagues have over the past year shown that omicron sub-lineages have largely caused mild symptoms in patients. “With XBB.1.16 we see the same pattern — as of now, we do not see any increase in hospital admissions,” he said.

The other team members are Rashmita Das, Sushma Yanamandra, Smriti Shende, Sonali Dudhate and Mansi Rajamane, among others.