Effects of Diwali, Durga Puja and elections on Covid-19 outbreak may be visible soon, says govt

Moving swiftly, health ministry has announced that manpower in the national capital will be increased to inspect nearly 4,000 containment areas in Delhi following the government-induced Standard Operating Procedures.

The Union health ministry on Tuesday said that Centre is taking urgent actions to control Covid-19 outbreak in Delhi by taking number of measures like increasing overall beds including ICU beds, double testing to 1-1.2 lakh per day, enforce quarantine of contacts, enforce containment zone SOPs among others.

Union health ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan has said fewer cases have been detected in the last 48 hours but the government cannot come to a conclusion as of now. (Photo: ANI)

Moving swiftly, health ministry has announced that manpower in the national capital will be increased to inspect nearly 4,000 containment areas in Delhi following the government-induced Standard Operating Procedures.

Niti Aayog’s Dr VK Paul said that the limit of ICU beds will be increased from 3500 ICU beds to 6000 ICU beds in next few days.

Indicating heightened social interaction amid disease outbreak, the officials also added that effects of elections, Durga Puja, Diwali may be seen in coming weeks. “We have to keep watching new cases very carefully,” the officials said in the press briefing.

The health ministry officials said that October trend was marked with record high Covid-19 tally and while Delhi has reported fewer cases in the last 48 hours, a conclusion cannot be derived yet. “Average daily test trajectory was increased after June in Delhi. Number of Covid-19 cases declined in mid-August. Since October number of cases are at a record high. Fewer cases have been detected in the last 48 hours but we can’t come to a conclusion now,” Union health ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

India on Tuesday logged 29,163 fresh infection of Covid-19, pushing the cumulative tally to 88,74,290. The death toll rose to 1,30,519 after 449 new casualties were recorded in the last 24 hours. India’s number of new coronavirus infections reported in a day dropped below 30,000 after four months. The last time India reported less than 30,000 Covid-19 cases was on July 15.

As of Tuesday, India has recorded more daily recoveries from Covid-19 than daily new cases for six successive weeks, according to the government data.

“India has continued the unbroken trend of the daily new recoveries outpacing the daily new additions for the 44th day. A total number of 43,851 Covid-19 patients recovered on Monday against just 30,548 newly detected cases. This translates to a net reduction of 13,303 in the active caseload which now stands at 465,478,” said the health ministry statement.