People lowering guard, vacation season behind spike in COVID-19 cases in Delhi: Experts

Experts said people lowering their guard and vacation period are the main reasons behind the recent increase in coronavirus cases in the national capital. Delhi logged 622 fresh COVID-19 cases and two deaths on Thursday, while the positivity rate rose to 3.17 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

On June 1, the city had reported 368 cases with a positivity rate of 1.74 per cent. Within a span of 10 days, cases have crossed the 500-mark in terms of single-day infections. On Wednesday, the national capital had seen 564 infections in a single day, highest since May 15 when 613 cases were reported.

B L Sherwal, medical superintendent, RML Hospital said there is a need to keep a vigil, but one should not panic. "Everybody has lowered the guard so such spikes (of cases) will happen. Patients are recovering in three to four days, and are having fever, body ache or loose motions. The good thing is that there is no lung involvement and requirement of oxygen," he said.

The senior doctor added that only those who are very sick and advised by doctors are getting admitted to hospitals. S K Arora, medical director, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital attributed the increase in incidences of coronavirus infection to the vacation season.

"This has become a common mild infection and such spurts will happen. Also, it is the vacation season and people are travelling from one state to another, and there will be such instances reported. But the only thing is that the infections are mild," he added. As of Thursday, 85 of 9,630 hospital beds were occupied. According to Delhi Corona mobile application, the number of hospital beds stood at 85 even on Friday, while 28 out of 2,218 ICU beds are occupied.