Spike In Delhi's COVID-19 Cases: New Sero-Survey Begins, AIIMS Suspends OPD Admissions

As Delhi Metro announced on Wednesday that it would resume operations from September 7, the national capital recorded 2,509 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike in 60 days, taking the tally to over 1.79 lakh. The death toll mounted to 4,481, with 19 deaths recorded on Wednesday.

The number of containment zones also jumped to 894 on Wednesday from 846 the previous day, the bulletin said.

Delhi Metro which will resume after a hiatus of over five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said stations in containment zones would remain closed.

Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal had on Wednesday directed officials to significantly augment the city’s testing capacity by taking measures like ‘testing on demand’, testing at the national capital’s border points and at major construction sites to check the spread of COVID-19.

The city’s health minister Satyendar Jain said that the third round of the monthly sero-prevalence survey had begun on Tuesday to analyse the COVID-19 situation in Delhi at “micro-level”.

The last time Delhi recorded more than 2,500 fresh cases was on July 3 (2,520 cases). On June 23, the national capital had reported its highest single-day spike of 3,947 new cases till date.

Dr Anoop Misra, the chairman of Fortis Centre for Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol, called the situation in Delhi “terrible”.

Delhi Police recently said it had fined around 1.9 lakh people in the city for not wearing masks, India Today reported.

The Delhi High Court had brought up the issue of increasing cases in the city and asked the government to strategise testing.

“You thought you had slayed the dragon. However, this dragon has several heads, which is making life miserable for people. Cases are rising in the city every day,” the court said .

Dr Ritu Saxena, the chief medical officer of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, had told The Print that this was not a good time to restart Metro services.

“We are already seeing a rise in cases. Admissions are more now than in July. While we have over 1,000 beds empty, it will be better to restart the Metro after a month when cases go down,” said Saxena.

Doctors told the publication that people in Delhi should not become complacent and make sure rules of wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and proper hand hygiene were followed to ensure decline in cases.

Sero-survey

The latest round of monthly sero-survey will cover all 272 municipal wards in the city with a sample size of 17,000, Satyendar Jain said. The previous surveys were done district-wise.

The last sero-prevalence survey was held from August 1-7, which showed that 29.1% of the people surveyed had antibodies against the coronavirus infection.

While announcing the results of the August survey, Jain had said that 15,000 representative samples were taken from 11 districts. He had also said the prevalence of antibodies in males was 28.3 per cent and that in females was 32.2 per cent.

Sero-prevalence of antibodies against COVID-19 found in the age group of less than 18 was 34.7 per cent, in 18-50 years 28.5 per cent, and 31.2 per cent in 50 years and above.

The sero-prevalence survey before the August exercise, done from June 27-July 10 by the Delhi government in association with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), had used 21,387 samples and found that around 23% of the people surveyed had exposure to the novel coronavirus.

Increasing testing capacity

Sources told PTI said that during a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Wednesday, the lieutenant governor asked officials to work out modalities and prepare detailed standard operating procedures to introduce testing facilities at a large scale. The sources said that for ‘testing on demand’ facility, a helpline number will soon be launched, where a person, who feels he has COVID-19 symptoms, can book testing and thereafter, can avail the facility at his doorstep.

“In first phase, senior citizens, women and children are likely to avail ‘testing on demand’ facility. Another option is also that people can also book testing at nearby centres by making a call at the helpline number,” a source told PTI.

“If a person prefers to undergo COVID-19 test at a nearby centre, he will be given particular time slot so that he will not have to stand in long queues,” the source said.

Baijal reportedly directed officials concerned to set up testing facilities at Delhi’s border points as well for the screening of those having COVID-19 symptoms.

“It will be mandatory for all migrant workers coming to Delhi to undergo tests. However, people, who live in NCR but work in Delhi, can also undergo test if they feel so,” the source said.

Testing centres are also being set up at major ISBTs, where migrant workers need to undergo test.

“At testing facilities at border points, everyone will not need to undergo COVID-19 test. If somebody entering Delhi feels that he has COVID-19 like symptoms, he can approach testing centres at border points. It will not be mandatory for everyone to undergo the test,” the source said.

The lieutenant governor has also directed officials to set up COVID-19 testing facilities at major construction sites, including metro project sites, for labourers. 

AIIMS suspends OPD admissions

The AIIMS authorities have suspended routine OPD admissions in private and general wards for two weeks in view of the heavy inflow of non-COVID patients in the emergency departments. However, general OPD consultations will continue.

The move has also been triggered by the recent uptick in admission of coronavirus cases at the AIIMS Trauma Centre, which has been converted into a dedicated COVID-19 facility, thus requiring deployment of an increased workforce in it, sources told PTI.

Routine OPD services to enable patients seek medical advice and consultations, which were recently resumed, will continue, AIIMS Medical Superintendent, Dr D K Sharma, said.

Emergency patients, who require inpatient hospitalisation in general wards or such patients who are advised private wards hospitalisation owing to emergency and semi-emergency conditions will continue to be admitted. 

(With PTI inputs)