NEW DELHI: With the festive season knocking on the door, the pandemic situation in the national capital may slip into a critical phase according to an expert committee on disease control.
As per a report by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) led by Dr VK Paul the next three months are going to be crucial in the city’s battle against Covid-19.
The report also predicted that a daily surge of 15,000 fresh positive cases is expected to be seen during this period.
However, city medical experts said the prediction is unlikely to happen. “There will be a certain increase in cases, but not as claimed by the expert committee. There can be a maximum daily addition of 2,000 to 3,000 more cases. The advantage is that hospitals are better prepared to tackle critical cases now. Facilities earmarked as designated Covid facilities are to remain the same. We should not worry about whether we have the facilities to handle cases or not. Many of the statements made by the committee are not scientific,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head, Department of Community Medicine, Safdarjung Hospital.The NCDC has warned of a surge in cases of Covid-19 in the days to come and added that the poor air quality in the region could end up making matters worse.
“Large gatherings are super-spreader events. They must be avoided. Coming festivals (Chhat, Puja, Dussehra, Deepavali, Eid, X-Mas and New year) pose a huge challenge in terms of pandemic control. It has been seen that Onam in Kerala and Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra worsened the Covid-19 situation in those regions. This must not be allowed to happen in the national capital. Our emerging gains in a reduction in cases will be reversed because of these festivities and the rush in markets/localities. Such a potentially avoidable setback will dent the image of not only the national capital but the country as well,” said the NCDC report.
“It is very important to take a rational view to make these events very low key, and essentially centred around family,” the NCDC added.