NEW DELHI: The Test Positivity Rate — the number of positive cases from those tested — of Covid-19 in Delhi crossed five per cent on Monday, a landmark figure that reflects how the disease has spiraled out of control.
In the past 24 hours, the state health department said a total of 64,003 people underwent Covid testing (43,960 via RT-PCR method and 20,043 via rapid antigen testing). Of them, 3,548 returned a positive result.
Dr N K Mehra, emeritus scientist and former dean of AIIMS, said TPR going above the 5% mark clearly shows that the infection is unmanageable. “In January, the test positivity rate in Delhi had come down to around 1%. It remained low till about two weeks ago. But now, the positivity rate is rising rapidly leading to exponential rise in cases,” the doctor said.
Dr Mehra added that initially it was thought the severity and deaths caused by Covid-19 was lower but emerging data suggested that the infection might be as lethal in the current wave as before, especially for the elderly and those with co-morbidities.
In the past five days alone, 64 people have died due to Covid-19 in the capital. This includes 15 fresh fatalities on Monday. The death toll in the city has reached 11,096 while the total tally has crossed 6.79 lakh. Delhi has the fifth-highest tally of Covid-19 cases.
Maharashtra tops the list with 30 lakh cases followed by Kerala (11.3 lakh), Karnataka (10.2 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (9.03 lakh).
“We need to scale up vaccination to save lives. The government has issued orders to keep one-third of the state-run vaccination centres open 24x7, which is a good idea. But we must also take measures to remove vaccine hesitancy and ensure that those on the priority list are covered under the mass immunisation programme at the earliest,” said a senior doctor at AIIMS.
In the first week of February, Delhi was recording 130 to 140 fresh cases daily. This number has gone up nearly over 30 times now. The number of active cases in the state has touched 14,589, leading to a huge rush for admissions in hospitals. There are no ICU beds available in more than 20 top private hospitals in the city. The overall occupancy of Covid-19 beds, which was below 20% till about a few weeks ago, touched 46% on Monday.
Demand for blood plasma has also gone up, according to the plasma bank run by ILBS.