COVID-19 surge in Delhi: After Maharashtra, is the capital expecting second Coronavirus wave?

Over the past week, the daily positivity rate of the novel Coronavirus cases in Delhi have been on a rise and many experts have raised concerns regarding the possibility of the next wave. On Sunday, as many as 800 cases were reported in the national capital for the second day in a row and this could be a red flag representing the next COVID-19 wave. With 823 positive cases surfacing from 79,714 tests conducted, the COVID-19 positivity rate stands at 1.03 per cent in Delhi. In the last 24 hours, one virus related death has been reported taking the overall death toll to 10,956.

Citing Lalit Kant, former head of the department of epidemiology, ICMR, a report by The IE said that positivity rate is an indicator depicting the testing that is being done in a city. With an increase in positivity rate, focus should go on testing more people and officials need to be more proactive in a situation like this. Kant said an action is needed right now to “nip the bud” because failure in doing so at this moment will result in things getting out of the hands. He added that the number of cases in Delhi have been rising every day. For one week now, 100 more cases are being reported each day which are now added in the tally.

According to the report. a total of 20,82,596 tests were conducted for Coronavirus in Delhi in January and 9,737 were found to be positive, concluding the positivity rate at 0.46 per cent. In February, 15,75,951 tests were performed and 4,074 COVID-19 cases surfaced, indicating a positivity rate of 0.25 per cent. Similarly this month, 13,60,064 people have been tested where 7,872 people were found positive for the viral infection. This is the first time since December 2020 that the daily positivity rate has increased by 1 per cent mark. This mark was breached on Saturday as the positivity rate was recorded at 1.07 per cent.

Experts are of the view that the identification of the age group of people who have been infected this month is important. Kant highlighted that if the prevalence of infection is there in the younger age groups and it is increasing, this can mean that the city is then on the cusp of another big wave. As of now, a majority of cases are coming in from the age group of above 60 years and those having comorbidities but if the younger population is also coming in (a group where population is huge), this implies that a quick action is needed and people need to be more cautious.

Similar surges and sudden spikes were earlier seen in states like Kerala, Maharashtra and Punjab. Some states now are looking at lockdown as a preventive measure to curb the transmission of virus.