Delhi adds 536 new Covid-19 cases, most since Jan 6

The Covid-19 trend continued to tick upwards in Delhi, with the Capital reporting 536 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, the most in a day since January 6, when the city logged 654 cases of the viral infection

The Covid-19 trend continued to tick upwards in Delhi, with the Capital reporting 536 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, the most in a day since January 6, when the city logged 654 cases of the viral infection. Delhi on Wednesday added over 500 cases for the first time in nearly 70 days, and for the fourth time this year. The other three were in January, when the number of cases in the city was still on the decline after the heights of the third wave in November.

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The new cases came on the back of 80,856 tests and a positivity rate of 0.66%, also the highest since January 6.

The daily case-spike and positivity rate have nearly doubled over the past fortnight, from 240 cases at a rate of 0.33% on March 3.

Even though the positivity rate remains below the 5% threshold that the World Health Organization recommends for an infection to be considered under control, experts believe Delhi’s case spike is a cause of concern.

“The number of cases has nearly doubled in the last two to three weeks and even though the positivity rate in Delhi is low, things will soon get out of hand. People have not been following Covid-appropriate behaviour and they tend to follow it only when there is strict enforcement. The government should again start fining people for not wearing masks and maintaining social distance,” said Dr Lalit Kant, former head of the department of epidemiology at the Indian Council of Medical Research.

The Centre has identified Delhi as one of 70 districts of concern where cases are on the rise.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain two days ago had said, “The positivity rate in Delhi was over 15% at one time and the WHO (World Health Organisation) says that it should be below 5%. The positivity rate in Delhi has been below 5% for a few months now and below 1% for nearly 2.5 months. In comparison, the positivity rate in Maharashtra is 16.46%, Kerala 3.54%, Punjab 4.81%, and Gujarat 1.78%. This means that the positivity rate in Gujarat is three times that of Delhi, Punjab six time, Kerala seven times, and Maharashtra thirty times. Till the positivity rate does not cross 1%, the infection is well control.”

Dr Kant, however, disagreed. “There is a need to immediately take action – increase and intensify contact tracing, test as many people as possible, and prevent large gatherings. The government also needs to start looking at whether the new infections are in a different age group or demography – there are still around 50% people susceptible to the infection in the city.”

The city has started increasing the number of tests being conducted, with nearly 81,000 samples being processed on Tuesday, as reported a day later in Wednesday’s health bulletin.

The experts have also asked for an increase in the pace of vaccination. “Yes, we have vaccinated a huge number of people but when we look at the size of our population, it is nothing. It is important to vaccinate as many people are possible as quickly as possible to prevent severe disease and deaths. However, the pace of the vaccination drive has remained slow because of vaccine hesitancy,” said Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant for internal medicine at Indraprastha Apollo hospital.

He said, “I believe that the launch of Covaxin was a little rushed, if it had just been launched a month late along with the data people would have had more confidence on it. Now, with the European countries stopping the use of the Oxford vaccine, people have doubts about the Indian variant Covishield as well. I am receiving several calls a day to ask whether they should take the vaccine.”