Covid-19 Now Endemic? Amid Delhi Spike, Doctors Claim Rate Of Hospitalisation Is Key

Amid growing cases of Covid-19 in Delhi giving rise to fresh alarm over a potential fourth wave, doctors in Delhi have put together a guide to help people distinguish between clinical and RT-PCR positive Covid-19 patients. 

A letter signed by 20 doctors from across private medical institutes in Delhi states that the virus has crossed the stage of being a pandemic in India and has now reached the endemic stage. As opposed to a pandemic which is a rarer phenomenon, endemic disease is one that is found regularly among the population of a certain area. 

The doctors said that Covid-19 is now an “endemic infection which shall keep causing flu-like illness in only a few people as most will not even develop severe symptoms”. 

In the wake of rising number of Covid-19 cases and a severe spike in the capital’s positivity rate, the health experts stated that it is incorrect to call people, both adults and minors, with RT-PCR positive reports as “cases”  “A ‘case’ is a person who has disease and presents with clinical symptoms and on subsequent testing is diagnosed as a clinical case of Covid. Please do not call all RT-PCR positives as “cases”. In fact, the term Covid-19 is defined as illness/disease, and it cannot be applied to someone who has no symptoms/illness, merely on the basis of some test,’ the doctors’ letter read.

In a call to media persons, the doctors appealed against misinformation and “fear-mongering” to scare people instead of arming them with facts that can help them fight the pandemic better. 

Delhi on guard

With the rapidity of the rise in cases, both clinical and RT-PCR positive, the Delhi government is on the alert while assuring people that was well. 

The number of coronavirus patients in home isolation in the national capital has seen an over six-fold increase from 447 on April 11 to 2,812 on April 24, according to official data. The number of patients admitted to hospitals also increased from 17 to 80 during the period. However, the Delhi government has assured people that despite the rise in cases, the hospitalisation rate has remained low.

While the city is witnessing a spurt in COVID-19 cases over the past few days with the number of active cases increasing to 3,975 from 601 on April 11,
Less than three per cent of the total active cases are currently in the hospital, as of data released on April 24. 

While cases have seen a rapid increase, the number of containment zones has more or less remained constant and has not seen any significant increase, the official data shows. The number of such zones has declined from 741 on April 11 to 656 on April 24.

Of the 9,379 beds available for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals, just 107 (1.14 per cent) are occupied.

But the Delhi government is not taking the matter lightly. It had lifted the mask mandate earlier this month but within three weeks brought it back making it mandatory for people to wear masks in public places and imposed a fine of Rs 500 for violation. The fine will not apply to people travelling together in private four-wheelers, the Friday order said. The government lifted the fine for not wearing masks on April 12 because of a decline in the number of daily cases. 

The decision to bring back the mask mandate in public places and impose the fine on violators came at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), which devises Covid management policies for the national capital. 

The city health department said that from Thursday, Delhi has started providing free COVID-19 precautionary doses to beneficiaries in the 18-59 age group at government vaccination centres.

(With inputs from PTI)