NITI Aayog member Dr. V.K. Paul has asked the Delhi government during a meeting to be “watchful” and warned that unlocking can lead to an increase in COVID-19 cases.
“The next three months are important. We need to be watchful,” Dr. Paul said at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on July 9, as per minutes of the meeting released later.
He said “unlock activity could lead to an increase in cases, though at present the positivity rate of cases is at its lowest point”. Dr. Paul also said that Delhi should take the advice of Centre before imposing any restrictions on inter-State travel
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Also, Dr. Samrian Panda of the Indian Council of Medical Research said that the “third wave is unlikely to be as severe as the second wave”. But he warned that a substantial third wave would be plausible if any new variant emerges, which is more infectious and escapes prior immunity in the absence of adequate lockdown measures.
“In the absence of these two factors, the projected third wave is unlikely to be as severe as the second wave. The timing of the third wave remains uncertain and it would be driven by factors outside the scope of modelling,” he said.
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Meanwhile, the city reported 58 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total cases to 14,35,778, according to a Delhi government bulletin. There was only one death and the total number of deaths stood at 25,041.
A total of 67,817 tests were done in a day and the test positivity rate (TPR) was 0.09%. Of the total cases, 14,10,164 people have recovered and there are only 573 active cases.
Also, the COVID-19 vaccine stock of the city will last for only less than a day, as per a vaccination bulletin. The city has been facing a similar situation for more than 10 days and the Health Minister had said last week that 500 vaccination centres were shut due to shortage.