10/31/2020 Alarm over new Covid-19 cases in Delhi; Centre may step in - india news - Hindustan Times

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Alarm over new Covid-19 cases in Delhi; Centre may
step in Covid-19 Live Up

Worried about the continuous spike in Delhi’s infections during the ongoing festive season, and at the start of winter, the Union Bihar Election 20
home ministry has called a special review meeting with Delhi government of cials on Monday. Delhi Air pollutio
INDIA Updated: Oct 31, 2020, 07:00 IST Kangana Ranaut
Saubhadra Chatterjee and Jamie Mullick India COVID-19 c
Hindustan Times, New Delhi

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A health worker in PPE coveralls collects a swab samples for coronavirus test at Amar Colony in New Delhi on Thursday.(Amal KS/HT Photo ) say

  Covid-cases in Delhi surged to a new high on Friday even as a concerned home ministry has
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called for a meeting on Monday to discuss the issue. for
 
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For the fourth day in a row, new Covid-19 infections in Delhi on Friday set yet another single-
day record even as the positivity rate continued to rise at alarming levels with a tenth of all
 
tests in the past 24 hours returning positive results, highlighting what is clearly the third and india new
worst wave yet of the outbreak in the Capital.
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  Worried about the continuous spike in Delhi’s infections during the ongoing festive season, an
and at the start of winter, the Union home ministry has called a special review meeting with
Delhi government of cials on Monday to check the spiralling rate of Covid-19 cases in the
Capital, people familiar with the matter told HT.

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10/31/2020 Alarm over new Covid-19 cases in Delhi; Centre may step in - india news - Hindustan Times

The meeting, chaired by Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, will take stock of the situation and
suggest concrete steps to the Delhi government to address the issue. Apart from Bhalla, Union
health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul, and other senior central
of cials will interact with Delhi health of cials, the people cited above added.

Also Read: Set up panels for Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, govt tells states

This will be the second intervention by the Centre into rising Covid cases in Delhi. In July,
Union home minister Amit Shah held a round of meetings with Delhi chief minister Arvind
Kejriwal and other of cials after which, testing, contact tracing and sero-surveillance were
ramped up in Delhi with the two governments working in coordination.

Delhi government spokespersons did not respond to messages and calls seeking comment on
the matter.

Cases in Delhi have risen to unprecedented highs in the past week. With 5,891 new cases on
Friday, Delhi set a new record for the highest single-day new infections for the fourth day in a
row, pushing the total number of cases to 381,644.

On average, Delhi has reported 4,749 cases every day in the past week, which means that the
current trajectory is far above the peak of what is considered the second wave (4,174 average
cases reported for week ending September 17). In contrast, cases in the rest of the country
have steadily declined through at least the past month, making Delhi one of the only two
regions (besides West Bengal) currently witnessing a peak.

What is alarming experts, though, is the rise in the Union territory’s positivity rate. The seven-
day average of positivity rate has risen more than 3.5 percentage points in just three weeks –
from 5.3% for the week ending October 8 to 8.8% on Thursday.

Experts stressed the need for the Delhi government to further increase testing and said that a
fast-rising positivity rate is an indicator that a region is not testing adequately. “Delhi is
witnessing a severe spike in cases for the third time. A speci c study should be conducted in
the city at this juncture. There are also studies that suggest that air pollution contributes to
transmission of the virus. That makes the situation in Delhi much worse. The number of tests

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10/31/2020 Alarm over new Covid-19 cases in Delhi; Centre may step in - india news - Hindustan Times

being conducted needs to be further scaled up,” said Dr Jacob John, former head of clinical
virology department at Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore.

Also Read: AIIMS to submit proposal for phase 3 trials of Covaxin next week

Pollution levels in Delhi have been worsening recently with the air quality index hovering
dangerously close to the ‘severe’ zone in the past 10 days. Many international research papers
have found that air pollution worsens Covid-19 mortality rates. A study published on Tuesday
in the journal Cardiovascular Research had said that around 17% of Covid-19 deaths in India
could be linked to long-term exposure to air pollution, higher than the 15% seen on average
across the world. A study from the Harvard University has also shown that with every 1 μg
increase in PM2.5 long term exposure, Covid-19 mortality went up by 8%.

HT reported on Monday that the data showed the tests need to be scaled up now irrespective of
the daily volume since the positivity rate is well over the acceptable 5%-7% level, and rising.

Many European nations, such as Germany and France, which are seeing a second wave of
cases, have all announced restrictions over the past week, especially keeping in mind the
festive season. The Delhi government, however, ruled out the possibility of re-imposing any
form of restrictions that were put in place during the lockdown.

“We have seen a lockdown. But that has not been able to stop transmission of the virus. People
will have to strictly adhere to social distancing and always wear masks. People should consider
wearing masks as a vaccine until real Covid-19 vaccines are available for the masses. Masks
can save us to a large extent from the winter pollution too,” Delhi health minister Satyendar
Jain said on Friday.

On Thursday, Jain attributed the surge in cases to the festive season and said that a “change”
in the administration’s contact tracing strategy was helping identify more patients. “We have
changed our strategy by strengthening our contact tracing system now. This is why the
positivity rate is increasing. So, now we are trying to test 5-7 contacts per Covid case to break
the cycle of infection.”

Even at this rate, however, Delhi’s contact tracing target would remain considerably short of
what experts say is ideal. At the Union ministry’s health brie ng on Tuesday, Dr Paul said that
“contact tracing can only be considered successful if at least 10 contacts” of every positive case
are traced and tested by the local governments.

Experts said the rise in cases is a re ection of the fact that with the festive season and winter
here, people are not taking Covid-speci c precautions.

“Many people are venturing outdoors and participating in gatherings in the light of the festive
season. And they are clearly not taking adequate safety measures. That is de nitely leading to
increased transmission of the virus. This demands innovative awareness campaigns that
contribute to behavioural change. Also, the winter months witness more respiratory illnesses
and Covid-19 is one. That is contributing to the numbers too,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of
community medicines department in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.

(With inputs from Abhishek Dey)

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10/31/2020 Alarm over new Covid-19 cases in Delhi; Centre may step in - india news - Hindustan Times

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