What's going around in India?

Indian sentinel sites reporting into WHO FluNet, coordinated through ICMR and NCDC, provide weekly positivity data for influenza and RSV. This produces a view of respiratory-virus pressure at participating hospitals and primary-care sites. The system is explicitly sentinel-based: it describes trends and relative intensity rather than attempting a nationwide headcount of ill people.

WHO FluNet, which aggregates India's sentinel data, covers influenza and RSV, not SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 in India is monitored through separate ICMR, NCDC, and INSACOG (genomic) streams. Data pages built on FluNet focus on flu and RSV only for that reason. COVID-19 surveillance in India continues through those dedicated channels.

India's bimodal pattern reflects its climate and geography. The monsoon period (roughly July–October) drives a humid-weather peak through increased indoor crowding and altered viral dynamics, while the cooler January–March window produces a northern-dominated winter peak. Together they generate year-round respiratory circulation with two well-defined crests rather than a single sharp winter wave.

India's bimodal pattern stands out clearly against the single-winter-peak signatures of higher-latitude countries. Because India reports into WHO FluNet with the same weekly cadence and methodology as the rest of the Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions, side-by-side comparison is straightforward. India's curve generally resembles other South and South-East Asian countries more than European ones.

Qualitative classification (low, moderate, high) is applied at the sentinel level and anchored to historical reference ranges for each contributing laboratory. WHO FluNet publishes the aggregated picture. Given substantial regional and seasonal variation, these qualitative tiers represent relative pressure at sentinel sites more honestly than absolute case totals would.