Uptick in Covid-19 cases in Delhi but hospitalisations still low

While the number of tests remained relatively on the lower end—17,210—the positivity rate climbed to 6.50% when compared with the 4.11% recorded on Saturday, the day tests were at similar levels.

There were 1,118 new Covid-19 cases in Delhi, government data released on Tuesday showed, taking the tally to over 1,000 after a gap of 35 days, leading authorities to step up vigil and prompting experts to renew calls for people to follow precautions.

The last time daily cases crossed the 1,000-mark was on May 10. (Sonu Mehta / HT Photo)

Senior health department officials and experts, however, said that since hospitalisation and death continue to remain low, there is no reason to panic.

The last time daily cases crossed the 1,000-mark was on May 10.

While the number of tests remained relatively on the lower end—17,210—the positivity rate climbed to 6.50% when compared with the 4.11% recorded on Saturday, the day tests were at similar levels.

On Tuesday, two patients infected with the virus died.

Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director, Lok Nayak Hospital, the largest Covid facility in the city, said that even as the cases are increasing, the symptoms being seen among patients are largely mild to moderate. As of Tuesday, 15 Covid patients are admitted at Lok Nayak Hospital, out of which one patient is critical and on ventilator support, two are on oxygen support.

“Most of the patients that are admitted here have moderate symptoms. The patients who are slightly critical are those who have serious, pre-existing medical conditions. The trend till now seems that the infection is milder and people are not requiring hospital care much,” said Dr Kumar.

Government data also corroborated Dr Kumar’s claims of hospitalisations being low. On Tuesday, out of the 9,582 beds reserved for Covid patients across hospitals, 9433—over 98%--were vacant, with only 149 beds, which accounts for 1.55%, being occupied. Currently, 1910 patients are also recovering at home.

Health experts from the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) and Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), two of the primary labs in the Capital where genome sequencing of Covid samples is being conducted, said Delhi has not seen any new variant or sub-variant of the virus till now and the spike in number could probably be attributed to fully resuming economic activities in the city and also to people lowering their guards against the infection.

“The dominant sub-strain prevalent in Delhi currently is Omicron’s BA.2. We have not seen any case of BA.4 or BA.5. All isolates that we have done so far are of BA.2 and its sub-lineages,” confirmed Dr Ekta Gupta, professor of clinical virology at ILBS.

There is also a growing number of people who are yet to take their booster doses despite becoming eligible. Data analysed by HT from the Co-WIN platform showed that as on June 11, at least 70% of those who can take their third shots are yet to take it.

Dr Anupam Sibal, group medical director at Apollo Hospitals Group and senior paediatric gastroenterologist and hepatologist at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, also said that hospital admissions should be a better marker to judge the infection in the Omicron-induced surges, considering the symptoms are relatively milder compared to Covid’s earlier variants.

“We have not registered any specific rise in hospitalisations of Covid cases. We don’t see any immediate sign of worry following the spurt in cases. The Covid virus will stay amidst the population for a very long time and is bound to mutate into different variants. Hence, we will experience highs and lows in the number of cases being reported from time to time, what is important is to ensure that the spread is controlled as soon a spike is noticed,” Dr Sibal said.

Senior officials from Delhi government’s health department said that they are keeping a close watch on the rising Covid numbers and have directed enforcement agencies and district administrations to ramp up action against people found not wearing masks and not abiding by Covid-appropriate behaviour. The districts have also started scaling up testing and sending all collected samples for genome sequencing.

“We are on an alert mode. Enforcement has been tightened and we are also overlooking preparations being made at hospitals for Covid patients. We are prepared for a worst-case scenario, even though the initial sense is that infection is not pushing people to hospitals,” said a health official on Tuesday.

Experts also stressed that while immunity acquired through infection, along with two doses of vaccination, can be considered a good shield against severe symptoms, timely precautionary or booster shots can provide that “extra protection” against these regular spikes.

Delhi has been relatively slow in the coverage of the third precautionary doses. Overall, the city has only managed to administer the booster shots to 1,305,199 people, which also includes senior citizens, people with co-morbidities, healthcare and frontline workers.

Dr GC Khilnani, chairperson of the institute of pulmonary critical care and sleep medicine at Delhi’s Pushpawati Singhania Hospital and Research Institute (PSRI Hospital) said that many countries across the world are giving booster doses to their citizens even 4-6 months, research and data suggests that 6-9 months between doses should be a good enough time gap for boosters.

“Anyone who is eligible to get booster shots according to the government guidelines must get it, especially the more vulnerable population such as senior citizens and those with comorbid conditions. There was a study from Israel that showed that those who took a second precautionary vaccine shot had lower rate of infection as compared to those who did not. There have also been studies that highlight, fully vaccinated people were less likely to develop post-Covid symptoms,” Dr Khilnani said.