Covid: Over 7K cases in last 10 days in Delhi; big jump in positivity rate

More than 7,100 coronavirus cases have been reported in Delhi in the last 10 days as doctors and other medical experts cautioned people to not lower their guard and follow all Covid-appropriate behavior.

Amid a spike in daily cases, the positivity rate has climbed from 1.92 percent registered on June 7 to 7.01 percent on June 15, as per official figures.

Delhi on Wednesday had recorded 1,375 Covid cases, the highest daily tally in a month, and zero death.

On May 10, the city had logged 1,118 cases with a positivity rate of 4.38 percent, and one death, while on May 8, Delhi had reported 1,422 cases with a positivity rate of 5.34 percent, and zero death.

The number of COVID-19 cases has registered a steady rise in the last ten days, as the daily tally mounted to over 1,300 on June 15 from 247 on June 6, totaling 7,175 cases in this period, according to official data shared by the city health department.

This corresponds to a rise of about 450 percent in the daily cases in this period.

While on June 14 and 15, the tally had been over 1,000, from June 10-13, it had stood at more than 600 on all four days.

As daily cases count and other associated metrics, such as active cases, and home isolation cases have also seen a parallel rise, experts have cautioned people to not lower their guard or slip into any sense of complacency again.

Doctors from various leading hospitals appealed to people to follow all Covid-appropriate behavior, especially wearing masks and maintaining social distance, avoiding crowded places, and taking other safety measures, but urged them to not panic.

Last week, experts had said that people lowering their guard, and traveling during the vacation season were the main factors behind the increase in coronavirus cases reported in the national capital lately.

B L Sherwal, medical superintendent, of RML Hospital has said there is a need to keep a vigil, but one should not panic. ''Everybody has lowered the guard so such spikes (of cases) will happen. Patients are recovering in three to four days, and are having fever, body ache, or loose motions. The good thing is that there is no lung involvement and requirement of oxygen,'' he said. Delhi has seen three major waves of the coronavirus pandemic, the second one dominated by the Delta variant of the virus being the deadliest by far. After that it saw a third wave with Omicron being the dominant variant, however, fatalities recorded during the third wave were relatively much lower than reported in the previous two waves.

In this last 10-day period, the highest number of fatalities was reported on June 12 -- three, when 735 cases were recorded with a positivity rate of 4.35 percent.

The number of active cases has climbed from 1,349 on June 6 to 3,643 on June 15, a rise of 170 percent.

The number of home isolation cases too has reported a steady rise, from 1,006 on June 7 to 2,108 on June 15, as per official data.

The number of containment zones had decreased from 236 on June 7 to 190 on June 14, but it again rose to 199 on June 15.

The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 percent on January 14, the highest during the third wave of the pandemic.

On Wednesday, Delhi's total COVID-19 tally had increased to 19,15,905 while the death toll stood at 26,223, the department said in its bulletin.

There are 9,582 beds for COVID-19 patients in Delhi hospitals and of those 169 are occupied, the bulletin said.