'A grave concern': Centre says festivities behind Covid surge in Delhi, Bengal & Kerala

While Delhi recorded 5,673 new cases in the last 24 hours, Bengal repoted 37,111 active cases during the same period.
A health worker collects swab samples for COVID-19 tests at Saroijni Nagar Market in New Delhi Thursday. (Photo | PTI)
A health worker collects swab samples for COVID-19 tests at Saroijni Nagar Market in New Delhi Thursday. (Photo | PTI)

NEW DELHI: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday reviewed the status of Delhi, West Bengal and Kerala in view of the alarming rise in Covid-19 cases in these states over the last several days.

Delhi, as of now, has 29,378 active cases with a fatality rate of 1.76% and a positivity rate of 7.9% and it recorded 5,673 new cases in the last 24 hours—the highest for a day since the beginning of the pandemic.

As per the data shared by the Centre, there has been nearly 46% increase in the new cases over the past four weeks, and the positivity rate over the past four weeks has escalated by nearly 9%.

The rising cases were attributed by the representative from the Delhi government, who took part in the meeting, to social gatherings during the festivities, the deteriorating air quality, increasing incidences of respiratory disorders, and clusters of positive cases at workplaces.

The fatigue among frontline workers was also discussed.

Delhi was advised to aggressively ramp up testing, increase RT-PCR tests, focus on contact tracing and effectively enforce isolation of the traced contacts within the first 72 hours, a statement by the Union health ministry said.

It was also asked to focus on containment zones, and strict perimeter control to be implemented as per MHA guidelines.

West Bengal, another state that has been seeing a rapid surge in cases has 37,111 active cases as on Thursday and its CFR is 1.84% while the positivity rate is 8.3%.

The state has registered 3,924 new cases in the last 24 hours and the average daily cases have recorded a 23% increase over the last four weeks. There is a 1% increase in the positivity rate over the last four weeks. 

Darjeeling, Nadia, Medinipur West, Jalpaiguri, Hooghly are the top districts showing an increasing trend in cases, whereas, Murshidabad, Nadia, Coochbehar, Kolkata and Darjeeling have registered an increase in the weekly deaths last week. The tests per million population stand at 41,261 whereas the national TPM is 77,220.

In the meeting, the state was advised to strictly follow the ‘test-track-treat’ strategy and to ensure a proper standard of care and early identification as well as early hospitalization of cases. It was also suggested to regularly monitor the symptom development and hospitalization trend amongst the home isolated patients.

Kerala, where the number of active cases is 93,369, the average daily cases have recorded 11% increase over the last four weeks. The number of new cases in the last 14 days is 98,778. In the last 24 hours, Kerala has registered the maximum number of new cases with 8,790 cases.

Thrissur, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram are the top districts showing an increasing trend in Covid cases, however, the state has been demonstrated better results in terms of Covid fatality and the fatality rate in the southern state stands at 0.34%. The Centre, however, expressed concern over the increase in the weekly deaths in Thrissur (133%), Kollam (75%), Alappuzha (31%), Ernakulam (30%), and Kannur (15%).

“It was mentioned that the increase in the new cases due to festivities is a grave concern,” the ministry said. 

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