‘Don’t let guard down despite dip in cases’

Capital reports 3,231 fresh COVID-19 infections, 233 deaths

The Capital reported 3,231 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours and 233 deaths, according to a health bulletin released by the Delhi government on Thursday.

This is the lowest number of daily new cases in about 50 days. The last time new cases were less than this was on April 1, when 2,790 cases were reported. The bulletin added that 58,744 tests were conducted with a positivity rate of 5.50%.

Commenting on the fall in the number of cases that has been sustained for over two weeks, experts said that Delhi has passed the peak of the current wave of infection but warned that preparations need to be made for a possible third wave of infection.

Head of the community medicine department at Safdarjung Hospital, Jugal Kishore, said that people are going to come from other cities and countries to Delhi and will bring different variants of the virus. “We don’t know how the virus will change and we should be careful when dealing with it. There are around 400 variants of concern and 1,000 variants of interest. Also, we don’t have any study showing lifelong immunity against the virus,” Dr. Kishore said.

Vaccine production

Delhi Medical Council president Arun Gupta also said that the peak is over in Delhi and that the situation is better in hospitals and admissions are also decreasing. He stressed on the importance of vaccination to combat the virus in the backdrop of the Delhi government closing down 100 vaccination centres last week due to shortage of vaccines.

“This is a war and all sources must be put into vaccine production. How much vaccine can two companies produce? It should be opened up for more companies and the Central and State governments should work together on this,” Dr. Gupta said.

The ferocity of the virus has ebbed and flowed in the Capital, first peaking in November after falling in the next three months. On January 27, the number of new COVID-19 cases had dropped to 96, the lowest in nine months and on February 16, dropped even further to 94. However, on February 24, the number of new cases hit 200, and started increasing thereafter.

The situation that started in mid-April when people started finding it difficult to find beds in hospitals started when the positivity rate peaked at 36.2% on April 22. On Thursday, the positivity was 5.5%, the lowest since April 6. The number of vacant beds in hospitals have also increased from 5-6% on many days in April to 48% on Thursday.

The highest number of cases was reported on April 20, when 28,325 cases were reported. The total number of cases since the pandemic began now stand at 14,09,950 and the total fatalities at 22,579. Of the total cases, 13,47,157 people have recovered and there are 40,214 active cases in the city at present.