Delhi govt inspects health infra amid minor Covid case uptick

According to the Delhi government’s health bulletin, the city on Friday recorded 655 new infections, up from 622 on Thursday and 564 the day before that. The city has recorded an average of 469 infections over the past week, up from 353 in the seven days ending June 3 and 406 the week ending May 27.

The Delhi government has started reviewing infrastructure across the national capital, officials said amid a minor uptick in Covid-19 infections in the city, even as health experts allayed fears, pointing to the negligible hospitalisation rates.

Delhi is also not the only state that has seen an infection uptick, with bigger surges in other states. (Sonu Mehta/HT file photo)

According to the Delhi government’s health bulletin, the city on Friday recorded 655 new infections, up from 622 on Thursday and 564 the day before that. The city has recorded an average of 469 infections over the past week, up from 353 in the seven days ending June 3 and 406 the week ending May 27.

To be sure, over 99% of the 9,615 hospital beds reserved for Covid-19 patients in the city were vacant as on Friday.

Senior health department officials said that though there is a minor uptick in the cases, the BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron variant — which is characterised by milder cases, fewer hospitalisations and even fewer deaths — has dominated infections in Delhi since January, a stretch likely to ensure some degree of protection for large swathes of the city’s population.

“We are reviewing the preparedness at all our hospitals. Even though we have seen really low hospital occupancy since the Omicron wave, we want to be prepared for a worst-case scenario,” said a senior government official.

Health experts, however, assured that the rise in infections is likely to be temporary and that hospital admissions are unlikely to reach worrying numbers.

Delhi is also not the only state that has seen an infection uptick, with bigger surges in other states.

The Union health ministry on Thursday said they are “closely monitoring” the Covid situation in four states — Delhi, Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka — where the rise in Covid numbers is comparatively higher than the rest of the country.

Health experts said that though the government needs to keep a close watch on the rising numbers, residents still have no cause for panic.

Dr Akshay Budhraja, senior consultant (respiratory and sleep medicine) at Aakash Healthcare, said intermittent surges are to be expected, because the virus mutates and every individual does not have cross immunity to unexposed strains.

“We need to understand that we will have to learn to live with Covid, as the virus is here to stay. That does not mean it will cause havoc as before. Currently, all the circulating strains are sub-variants of omicron, which spreads very fast but the virulence is low. The cases might peak in late June, but the number of hospitalisation will not be significant,” Dr Budhraja said.

Dr Satish Koul, director (internal medicine), Fortis Memorial Research Institute, said that over the last two-three weeks while the number of patients coming in with Covid symptoms to hospitals has increased, most are not requiring admissions and are getting better with OPD (outpatient department) consults.

“The duration of illness that we are observing is around five-six days. After this, most patients get better but some are complaining of prolonged cough,” he said.