Covid cases spike slightly in Delhi, experts prescribe caution

The city also saw one more death on Wednesday, taking the total number of fatalities to the viral infection to 25,100. This was the second death in the city reported in the month of December

Delhi on Wednesday reported 65 new cases of Covid-19, the most in a 24-hour period in over 100 days, as new infections continued to slowly inch up in the Capital amid fears of the heavily mutated Omicron variant spreading in the country.

Testing underway at New Delhi Railway Station, on Wednesday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

Experts have warned that while the increase in cases remains marginal for now, all Covid protocols must be followed strictly, and people should immediately get vaccinated.

The seven-day average of new cases (a statistic that represents a region’s Covid-19) curve has now touched 52 infections a day in the past week – the highest since August 13, or 117 days ago. As little as 11 days ago (for the week ended November 27), this number was at 28 new cases a day, on average.

To be sure, the number of tests – both RT-PCR and rapid antigen – has also increased during this period. The average daily samples tested in the past week were 57,412, compared to 52,532 for the week ended November 27, official government data shows.

Meanwhile, another death was reported on Wednesday due to the disease, taking the total number of fatalities to the viral infection in the Capital to 25,100. This was the second death in the city reported in the month of December.

There were seven deaths recorded in Delhi in the month of November, which was the highest since August this year. In October, the city recorded just four deaths — the fewest seen in any month since the start of the pandemic in the country in March last year.

Another positive side for the city is that the daily positivity rate, the proportion of samples that returned positive, meanwhile, continues to remain low. On Wednesday, only 0.11% of all samples tested returned positive. While this number has inched up marginally from the 0.06% seen in the final week of November, it remains much below the 0.5% positivity rate at which the first phase of Delhi government’s graded response action plan kicks in.

On Sunday, the first case of the Omicron variant, a heavily mutated variant of Sars-Cov-2 that was first detected in South Africa, was found in Delhi. As of Wednesday night, a total of 23 cases of Omicron have been detected in the country. The variant, which has already gained a foothold in Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, has forced governments across the world to tighten travel rules again as scientists rush to establish if cases of this variant progress to the severe stage, or if vaccines would be need to be reworked to combat it.

Meanwhile, experts said that people should just stick to existing Covid protocols.

“Now that Omicron is in the country, it is quite infectious and will most likely spread. However, we don’t need to do anything different to protect against the virus -- those who have not been vaccinated, should get vaccinated; everyone should wear masks; and avoid crowded areas and large gatherings. Anyone who gets symptoms should immediately isolate themselves so that they do not spread the infection. Fortunately, a high proportion of people were exposed to the virus during the second wave -- probably 80% in Delhi as seen in unvaccinated children in the sero survey -- and they will have good protection against re-infection,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung hospital.

“We have to see how effective vaccines would be. During the Delta wave, we saw around 27% breakthrough infections in India. The vaccines will protect against this variant too but we have to see how much,” he added.