NEW DELHI: While elderly Covid-19 patients with comorbidities are losing their lives, doctors say that the booster dose programme has started very late in Delhi and more deaths could have been prevented had it started a fortnight ago.
“We are 10 days late in starting the booster dose programme. The cases have risen in the past 10 days, so we should’ve started the booster shot programme at least a fortnight ago,” says a senior doctor at a government hospital.
Delhi on Monday recorded 17 deaths for the second consecutive day and the ICU beds also witnessed a steady rise with 443 patients, an increase of 133 patients from Sunday. According to doctors, the steady rise in deaths and ICU patients is proportionate to the number of new cases which are being recorded every day.With doctors declaring community spread, the booster dose will not immediately prevent the rising deaths or number of infections.
“Booster will bring some relief but it is late. Community spread has already taken place and in such a situation, nobody knows who is positive and who is not. So if someone with asymptomatic conditions gets the booster shot, it will be problematic and symptoms might also arise in that situation,” explains a doctor deployed at a covid ward.
However, the doctor adds that those who don’t have the virus and have got the third dose, also known as the precaution dose, will get immunity. Meanwhile, the health officials stated that now they are also getting patients from shelter homes and prisons as well. “Seventy people from a shelter home have been infected with the virus and every day we are getting 4-5 patients from Delhi prisons,” the doctor says.
A total of 19,166 fresh cases of Covid-19 were reported on Monday, 3,585 fewer cases than Sunday’s numbers. According to doctors, this is because of the lesser number of tests conducted. A total of 76,670 tests were conducted, according to Monday’s health bulletin. Out of these, 66,327 were of RT-PCR and 10,343 were Rapid Antigen Tests.
With the positivity rate reaching 25 per cent, every fourth person getting tested for Covid in Delhi is being found positive. The positivity rate reached a quarter reported on Monday, while 65 patients were on ventilators and 503 on oxygen support. Currently 65,806 active Covid patients in the capital, the highest since May 15.
