80 per cent of households in Delhi had viral patients, claims survey

NEW DELHI: Delhi on Thursday recorded eight fatalities for the second consecutive day and 1,964 fresh cases along with a positivity rate of 9.42 per cent.

According to doctors, those with comorbidities and elderly citizens have become the latest victims of the disease. As per the health bulletin released by the Delhi government, a total of 539 patients were hospitalised out of which 170 were in ICU, 184 on oxygen support and 17 on ventilators.

Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by an advocacy platform LocalCircle, eight out of every 10 households surveyed in Delhi-NCR have one or more individuals who showed symptoms of viral fever in the last 30 days. The survey received over 11,000 responses from residents of Delhi and all major NCR cities.

At least, 54 per cent of the respondents said they had at least two members in their family who had one or more symptoms of viral fever such as fever, runny nose, cough, headache, and body ache, among others, in the last 30 days. The report further added that in most cases, people seem to be opting for home kits to test if they have Covid or whether it is a case of viral fever. Whatever the case may be, both carry the risk of spreading to other family members, particularly the children.

The survey was conducted in Delhi, NCR cities, including Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad which received over 11,000 responses.“Of the total households surveyed, 54 per cent of households have reported 2-3 family members having or recovering from flu in the past one month, while 23 per cent of households have had four or more family members affected by the flu. Whereas, 8 per cent of respondents claimed that at least one member of their family was down with flu-like symptoms. Only 15 per cent of respondents said that their households had no members affected,” the survey further said.