NEW DELHI: Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Monday directed the officials to ensure genome sequencing of Covid-19 samples in the city to “proactively” detect the prevalence of any new variant amid an uptick in coronavirus cases in the city.
The government’s health department is focusing on genome sequencing and the experts are keeping a tab on how the virus is mutating, said an official. According to the officials, the patients in the hospitals are under observed and if any new symptom is seen, their samples will be sent to the labs for further study.
“However, the situation is not extreme as the number of hospitalisation is very less,” said an official. The officials also put forward the issue of infrastructure amid the rising number of Covid cases. The official said that the random testing programme has not been initiated so far and will be done only if there is a sharp rise in the number of cases and fatalities.
“With the cases increasing, there will be a 15-20 percent rise in testing. But for now, no such drastic step is being taken. The infrastructure for now is well placed,” the official added. Meanwhile, Delhi on Monday reported 614 new Covid-19 cases and zero death, while the positivity rate increased to 7.06 per cent, according to the health bulletin shared by the city health department.
This is the highest positivity rate since May 4 when 7.6 per cent of the people tested turned out Covid positive. Also, this is the fourth consecutive day that the city has recorded over 600 cases in a day. Delhi’s tally of Covid-19 cases increased to 19,13,412 and the death toll stands at 26,221, as per the bulletin.
As many as 1,825 patients are under home isolation, up from 1,613 the previous day, it said, adding that there are 191 containment zones in the city. The city on Sunday reported 735 new Covid-19 cases and three deaths, as per the data.
CONCERN OVER RISE IN DENGUE CASES
New Delhi: Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Monday held a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and appreciated the high vaccination percentage in Delhi but also pointed to the relatively low figures in administering precautionary doses and advised officials to enhance them through a public outreach programme. They also discussed about dengue and other vector-borne diseases being reported in the city despite the season not being conducive for its spread.Terming the occurrence of dengue in summer as worrisome, Saxena asked officials to consult experts and epidemiologists to ascertain if a new virus strain had evolved.