NEW DELHI: A load of patients from Delhi Airport who were undergoing Covid tests has reduced drastically and the number of patients testing positive for the virus has reduced to 25-30 in the last ten days. “On an average, only 25-30 patients have now been testing positive for the last 10 days out of almost 2,500 people who are testing daily at the Delhi Airport,” said an official at the airport.
According to the official, most of these patients are asymptomatic and are being sent to isolation facilities created by the city government and no hospitalisation has been required for them. However, the patients in hospitals are mostly coming from home isolation and referrals.
According to Dr Ritu, Deputy Director at Lok Nayak Hospital, a dedicated Covid-19 care hospital, a majority of Covid patients at the hospital are those who have been referred there by private hospitals or
patients coming from home isolation referred by district health officials.
She said that patients coming from Delhi airport to Lok Nayak have been nil for the last 10-15 days. This comes at a time when a single day rise of fresh Covid-19 cases on Tuesday was recorded at 6,028 along with 31 deaths and a positivity rate of 10.55 per cent.
The fresh cases spiked on Tuesday in comparison with Monday’s numbers when a total of 5,760 cases were recorded, the spike was primarily because of the increased testing. A total of 57,132 tests were conducted on Tuesday, out of which 42,607 were RT PCR tests and 14,525 were rapid antigen tests. On Monday, a total of 48,844 tests were conducted.
On a brighter note, the positivity rate further declined to 10.55 per cent. On Monday, the positivity rate was recorded at 11.79 per cent. A total of 2,304 patients occupied the city hospital beds out of which 817 patients were admitted to ICU, 760 on oxygen support, and 162 on the ventilator support.
As per the health bulletin released by the Delhi government, there were 44,547 containment zones on Tuesday and 33,602 patients were in home isolation. As many as 574 people have succumbed to Covid in the city so far in January. However, Health Minister Satyendar Jain maintained that most patients had comorbidities and Covid wasn’t the primary reason for deaths this time.