Delhi on Tuesday reported a massive spike of 77 per cent in daily coronavirus infections with 1,118 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, as against 614 reported on Monday.
While daily coronavirus infections registered a sharp rise, the positivity rate fell to 6.50 per cent on Tuesday from 7.06 on Monday.
Two deaths were also reported on Tuesday, whereas no death was reported on Monday.
The national capital had last reported over 1,000 infections on May 10. Now Delhi has reported over 600 daily Covid-19 cases for the sixth straight day.
While cases are rising in Delhi and at some other places in the country, experts have highlighted that this spike is limited in its geographic spread and the rise in infections is not accomponied by a rise in hospitalisations and deaths.
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They have explained this spike through the recent opening up of the economy, increased movement of people because of summer vacations along with lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour and lack of enthusiasm for coronavirus vaccines' booster doses.
Dr NK Arora, chairman of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), further said earlier this week that no new variant has been detected.
He added, "There is another dimension to it and that is, the infection is limited to metros and big cities with a high population density. The important thing is that most of the people who are getting infected these days are immunised and have a common cold and a mild influenza-like illness.
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"There is no need to panic, but one must remember that Covid is very much around us and we need to adhere to Covid-appropriate behavior and particularly, avoid crowded places and also make masks an integral part of our day-to-day living."
AIIMS Director Dr. Randeep Guleria said although there is a rise in the number of cases, there is no associated increase in hospitalisation or deaths.
He said, "So the rise in the number of cases is not a cause of worry at the moment. But we should not let our guard down and must focus on aggressive testing so as not to miss out on any emerging variant."
Dr Nivedita Gupta, ICMR's head of epidemiology and communicable diseases division, said we need to remember the pandemic is not over and that we shold ensure complete vaccination, including getting booster doses.
Officials in Delhi have initiated a number of measures to tackle this spurt in cases, such as deploying more people to monitor home isolation cases, restocking medicines, and aggressively tracing contacts to identify potentially infected people.
Delhi's Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Monday held a meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to review the Covid-19 situation in the national capital. He directed officials to ensure genome sequencing of coronavirus samples in Delhi to "proactively" detect the prevalence of any new variant.
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An official in New Delhi district told PTI that testing has been ramped up. This official said, "In view of the increase in cases, we have also started testing low-risk contacts of the patients, especially in those areas where the positivity rate is high.
"Earlier, low-risk contacts would not be tested and would only be quarantined but now in areas where a high number of infections are being reported, we are testing even those who have minimal chances of infection."
(With PTI inputs)
