4th wave swells: Delhi adds 2,790 cases, most in 114 days

Thursday’s spike was the highest single-day surge in 114 days, since the city recorded 3,188 infections on December 8.

Experts called for faster vaccinations and urged authorities to open the drive up for all adults in the Capital, arguing that widespread coronavirus inoculations were the only way to prevent the infection surge from spiralling out of control.

Experts regard the positivity rate as a crucial metric to assess the spread of an infection. (HT photo)

The city added 2,790 Covid-19 cases on Thursday, a jump of nearly 1,000 cases more than the previous day’s count.

Thursday’s spike was the highest single-day surge in 114 days, since the city recorded 3,188 infections on December 8.

“The number of cases has increased more than we anticipated. There is a need to quickly vaccinate as many people as we can — everyone above the age of 18 must be allowed to get doses,” said Dr SK Sarin, director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS). He headed the Delhi government’s first committee on Covid-19 management and control. The Delhi government had in the third week of March written to the Centre, asking for permission to vaccinate all adults, but hasn’t received approval yet.

“All eligible residents should be administered the vaccine quickly. If south Delhi is reporting a high number of cases right now, there will surely be an increase in other districts as well,” said Dr Lalit Kant, former head of the department of epidemiology at the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Apart from the sharp spike in cases, the positivity rate — proportion of samples that return positive among total tested — also increased sharply on Thursday, jumping to 3.57% from 2.71% a day ago.

Experts regard the positivity rate as a crucial metric to assess the spread of an infection. While Delhi’s positivity rate stayed below 1% for 82 days, it has jumped over the past few days.

The number of active cases also crossed the 10,000-mark on Thursday. There were 10,498 people with the infection in the city as on Wednesday night – as reported a day later in Thursday’s health bulletin.

The Delhi government on Wednesday ordered 33 major private hospitals to increase the number of Covid-19 beds after occupancy in some facilities crossed 75%.

“In my hospital, the Covid wards that had been closed were re-opened. ICUs have started filling up. And, this will continue to increase as the number of cases keeps going up. This is the cycle of Covid-19 that has been seen in other countries as well. People became jubilant as the number of cases went down and the vaccinations started happening, leading to a second wave of cases. In Delhi, it doesn’t seem like a mutant variant is responsible for the current increase. It is the behaviour of people, increase in inter-state and country travel, and over-crowding in public places, get-togethers etc,” said Dr GC Khilnani, former head of the department of pulmonology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He is currently the chairman of PSRI Institute of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine.

“We have to start worrying about infections in children as well. Younger people are likely to become superspreaders now, with schools and colleges slowly opening up, but none of the vaccines being approved for them,” said Dr Sarin.

“Last year, at this time, people were scared of the infection and were minimising activities, taking precautions such as wearing masks and washing hands. But now there is no scare or panic. If you go to the market, it seems as if there is no pandemic. Then there are congregations for festivities and marriages. These lead to the spread of the infection and have to be curtailed, because they are optional activities,” said Dr Khilnani.