The national capital has witnessed an uptick in daily cases over the last week
Delhi has recorded 40 deaths due to Covid-19 so far in August, a nearly three-fold rise as against the last 10 days of July when 14 people succumbed to the viral disease, according to official data. Delhi recorded two deaths on August 1, three on August 2, five on August 3, four on August 4, two on August 5, one on August 6, two on August 7, six on August 8, seven on August 9, and eight on August 10, the data showed.
One death each was recorded on July 22 and 23, two each on July 24, 25, 26, and 27, zero on July 28, one each on July 29 and 30, and zero on July 31. The number of deaths recorded on August 10 was the highest in nearly 180 days. Delhi’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 26,351.
The national capital has witnessed an uptick in daily cases over the last week. The number of deaths has also been showing an upward trend. However, experts and officials said that fatalities are being recorded among people who have comorbidities or are suffering from cancer, tuberculosis, or other accompanying illnesses.
“In most of the cases, Covid-19 is an incidental finding. Most of these patients are already undergoing treatment for other diseases,” a government official said. Richa Sareen, senior consultant, Pulmonology, Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj, said the risk is greater for the elderly and those with comorbidities as the disease tends to be severe in this section of the population.
“There has been a rise in Covid cases, including reinfections and breakthrough Covid infections (post-vaccination), in the past week. This can be attributed to the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron that tends to bypass immunity,” she said. “Although the majority of the recent cases have been mild, we need to be cautious in the coming days and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour to prevent an exponential rise in Covid cases. “The elderly and those with comorbidities should take more precautions as the disease tends to be more severe in them, leading to hospitalisation, ICU admissions, and sometimes death,” she said.
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And despite the recent increase in new cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has stated that there is no need to panic because the majority of the new cases are mild in nature.
Anil Sachdev, Director of Paediatric Intensive Care at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, has warned that coronavirus and seasonal illnesses are putting children at risk, a report by Zee News said. “However, we’ve seen children with mild Covid symptoms. Only two children were seriously ill in the previous month, but both had comorbidities. One of the children had Down syndrome, and the other had some comorbidities, but both have recovered. Schools should not be closed, but there is a need to reinforce Covid-appropriate behaviour, which both the elders and the younger cohort must do,” he said.
Spike in Mumbai Cases
Mumbai on Wednesday reported 852 Covid-19 cases, the highest daily rise after July 1, and a single fatality, taking the tally to 11,29,285 and the toll to 19,661, the city civic body said. On July 1, the metropolis reported 978 cases and two fatalities, before the daily number of cases started dipping gradually. Barring the first two days of this month, Mumbai has been reporting more than 400 coronavirus infections everyday. The spike in the number of cases in the last 24 hours is nearly 79 per cent or 376 more compared to 476 infections reported on Tuesday.
The metropolis has been witnessing a steady rise in the cases for the last few days. The tally of active cases surged past the 3,500-mark to reach 3,545, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) bulletin said. Of the 852 cases, only 36 patients were symptomatic while the rest 816 were asymptomatic, it said. A total of 9,670 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours raising the cumulative tally of the samples tested so far in Mumbai to 1,79,04,139.
