As many as 571 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Delhi in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 11,659, according to the Delhi government health bulletin released on Thursday. This is the biggest single-day jump in the number of cases in the city so far.
Tuesday and Wednesday had also recorded the biggest single-day increase till then. Also, 18 more deaths have been reported, taking the total number of deaths to 194, though the bulletin said that all the deaths did not happen in the past 24 hours.
Of the 11,659 cases, 5,567 people have recovered, whittling down the active cases to 5,898.
The recovery rate pleased Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. “Am so proud of our team of doctors and nurses who have provided the best possible treatment to our COVID patients. Delhi will soon have more recovered patients than the number of active cases [sic],” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Lok Nayak Hospital, which had asked healthcare workers who are on quarantine to vacate the accommodation the hospital had provided, handed them a week’s extension. In an order issued on Wednesday, Dr. Suresh Kumar, Medical Director of Lok Nayak Hospital, asked workers to vacate by Thursday noon.
‘Quarantine not needed’
Mr. Kumar issued the order following a Delhi government order, dated May 18, which said that “regular quarantine of healthcare workers after performing duty in COVID-19 areas is not warranted”. The Delhi government issued the order following a Central government order on the same on May 15.
Before the order, all the healthcare workers in Delhi who were on COVID-19 duty were quarantined for 14 days after working for the same tenure. Under the new guidelines, only high-risk workers will be quarantined for 14 days. “We have given them a week’s time to vacate the accommodation,” Dr. Kumar stated.
However, it entails considerable risk. “Under the current guidelines, almost no one would be eligible for quarantine after 14 days of work. This would risk healthcare workers infecting family members and society,” Parv Mittal, president of the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) of the hospital said.
New amendments
The RDA has urged the Union Health Minister to amend the new guidelines, but the Minister is yet to respond.
The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association India (FORDA) too had written to Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, urging him to make amendments to the new guidelines for the quarantine of healthcare workers.
“Many patients do not show any symptoms and by not quarantining healthcare workers, we expose their family and friends to the virus. We will be holding a black ribbon protest tomorrow [Friday] and doctors will be wearing a black ribbon to work,” FORDA president Shivaji Dev Barman said.
