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35% patients in Covid hospitals from outside Delhi, says Satyendar Jain

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByAbhishek Dey
Aug 10, 2020 02:51 AM IST

On Sunday, Delhi recorded 1,300 new infections taking the cumulative number of cases to 145,427. As many as 1,404 fresh cases were recorded on Saturday. However, between August 1 and 7, Delhi witnessed an average of 1,028 fresh cases per day.

Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday said around 35% of beds in Covid hospitals in Delhi are currently occupied by patients from other states. He also said that the number of Covid cases in the Capital are witnessing a spike once again because a large number of patients from other states are getting tested in Delhi.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain attributed the spike in coronavirus cases to “people from other states who arrive in Delhi and get tested”.(Amal KS/HT Photo)
Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain attributed the spike in coronavirus cases to “people from other states who arrive in Delhi and get tested”.(Amal KS/HT Photo)

“Till last month, we observed that total bed occupancy in Covid hospitals in the city in terms of absolute numbers was dropping by around 100 per day on an average. But, for at least the last 10 days, the number has been more or less constant. When we studied the trends, it emerged that around 35% of patients who have occupied beds currently are outsiders. In fact, on Saturday, 224 Delhi residents were admitted in Covid hospitals, compared to 97 patients from other states,” said Jain, who himself recovered from Covid and joined the office last month.

On Sunday, Delhi recorded 1,300 new infections taking the cumulative number of cases to 145,427. As many as 1,404 fresh cases were recorded on Saturday. However, between August 1 and 7, Delhi witnessed an average of 1,028 fresh cases per day.

Jain attributed the spike to “people from other states who arrive in Delhi and get tested”.

Also read: 1,300 new coronavirus cases take Delhi’s tally past 1.45 lakh mark

He said, “Most such cases surface only when health teams reach out to the patients for follow up and realise that they have left for their residence. So far, we have seen patients from Ghaziabad, Noida, Kolkata and other places who got in Delhi and diagnosed Covid positive. Large number of patients are outsiders. As far as Delhi is concerned, cases which originate in the city are actually going down.”

When asked if the increased numbers could be a result of increased RT-PCR tests in the last few days, Jain said, “There are strict guidelines for conducting RT-PCR tests set by the ICMR. It says that only symptomatic people can be recommended for the test. On our part we have been conducting a large number of antigen test. And individuals who test negative despite having symptoms are sent for RT-PCR test.”

Under guidelines of the government, only Covid patients with severe symptoms or those with moderate symptoms along with comorbidities are admitted in hospitals. As on Sunday evening, 3,085 (out of 13,517) beds in Covid hospitals in Delhi were occupied – which is 27 higher than the previous day, in terms of absolute numbers, government records showed.

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