The Centre on Thursday expressed concern over the COVID-19 situation in Delhi, terming it “worrisome”.
In several districts in Delhi, cases have been rising, positivity rates high and testing levels low, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said at a high-level meeting held via video conferencing to review the COVID-19 situation in the national capital. The meeting was also attended by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Satyendra Jain, health minister, Delhi.
Delhi reported 1,513 new cases and nine deaths on June 3. The total number of cases stood at 23,645, and 606 patients had been reported dead.
Vardhan pointed out that though Delhi has a high test per million count (2018), in some districts, such as the north east and the south east, the rates were low. In the north east, for instance, the tests per million stood at 517, and in the south-east the number stood at 506. Besides, Delhi’s positivity rate of last week was 25.7 per cent and several districts reported figures above 38 per cent, he said.
Positivity rate is the number of positive cases per 100 tests. The higher number of positives per 100 implies that only sicker people were being tested and more testing needs to be done.
Vardhan also pointed to the high rate of infection among Delhi’s healthcare workers. “It indicates poor infection prevention control practices in healthcare settings and needs to be attended to on priority,” he said. There was an immediate need to scale up testing, enhance healthcare infrastructure, and ensure better clinical management, he added.
The Union minister underscored the immediate need to scale up testing with health infrastructure enhancements along with better clinical management of COVID-19 cases to reduce the death rate. Bed availability needed to be increased, and unnecessary delays in admission of cases need to be avoided, he said.
“As a significant proportion are in home isolation, all efforts for timely response in terms of testing, triaging and shifting of patients to the required level of dedicated COVID facility is important to avoid mortality,” he said. The elderly and vulnerable population, such as those with underlying co-morbidities, need to be identified and protected, and provisioning of institutional quarantine to vulnerable populations in large clusters where home isolation is not deemed effective, needs attention too, he added.
Delhi should follow the Centre’s guidelines on these measures, including surveillance of SARI and ILI cases, establishing fever clinics and flu corners across the city. Also non-COVID essential healthcare services need to be resumed, he said.
The Union health minister further said non-COVID care must also begin in hospitals in Delhi.
"Though issues such as the density of population in many containment zones did pose a serious challenge to the collective efforts of the administration, it was important to pool in resources and experiences for a convergent action,” he told the district administrators who were also present at the meeting.
District magistrates and officials of the municipal corporations spoke about the issues related to perimeter control in containment zones, timely identification and classification of cases as stigma associated with COVID-19 stopped people from reporting symptoms or cases. They also said people seem to be getting complacent with following the norms regarding physical distancing during the 'Unlock 1.0' period. This was a major factor contributing to the new surge in cases, they said.
