Why is Delhi is seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases? AIIMS director blames super-spreader events

Agreeing that it is difficult to avoid crowds in the festive season, the AIIMS director warned that with the drop in temperature and rising air pollution levels there is a dire need to exercise caution

All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi (AIIMS), director, Dr Randeep Guleria said on Wednesday that super-spreader events can be the reason behind the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in Delhi.

AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria said there is an acute need for everyone to wear masks whenever they are in places with a considerable number of people (AFP)

“What happens is if in a crowd one does not wear a mask, a person who may be asymptomatic and is highly infectious he can spread the disease to a large number of people in the crowd. If they get the disease, they will take it to the area they go to, their own family members, their relatives and they will again spread the disease. So you can have super-spreading events, and it is likely that this has happened in Delhi. There were crowds, people did not take precautions and they were super spreading events and this led to an increase in the number of cases,” Dr.Guleria told ANI

A super-spreader event is one where a single person with the virus can come into contact with multiple other people and spread the virus to them. They have been gaining widespread attention following reports that Donald Trump’s pre-election fundraiser and his election night watch party might have been superspreader events, where members of his campaign were infected in significant numbers. In Kerala too, cases spiked after Onam celebrations.

Agreeing that it is difficult to avoid crowds in the festive season, the AIIMS director warned that with the drop in temperature and rising air pollution levels there is a dire need to exercise caution. He also advised senior citizens and people with comorbidities to be extra vigilant during this phase and said there is an acute need for everyone to wear masks whenever they are in places with a considerable number of people.

Talking about the sudden rise in the number of coronavirus cases in Delhi, he said, “We are seeing an increasing surge of cases in Delhi, and the numbers are increasing with time. The number of cases had come down to 2,000 from 4,000, and now they are going upwards of 7,000 and up to 8,000 in a day, this is also reflected in increased hospital admissions and to some extent in mortality.”

As per the Union health ministry’s website on Wednesday, there are 41,385 active Covid-19 cases in the national capital, while 4,02,854 patients have been cured and discharged. Over 7,000 fatalities have been reported in the national capital so far.