Why Delhi Has A Viral Overload

AAP govt scrambles to scale up health infra as new clusters, delayed test results & easing of curbs trigger sudden spike

- Gulam Jeelani

A day before lockdown 3.0 came into force on May 4, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asserted that the time has come to “re-open” Delhi as coronavirus wasn’t going anywhere and his government was ready to deal with a surge in cases.

A few hours later, his health department’s bulletin confirmed 427 new infections — the highest single-day jump in the city till then.

But it isn’t about a day. Between May 1 and May 7, Delhi has reported a total of 2,465 Covid-19 cases — more than 41 % of the total 5,980 infections reported since March 2, when the first one came to light.

Worse, the case doubling rate has reduced from 13 days to 11 days in about a week. So what explains Delhi’s viral overload? Is it because OF rising cluster cases? Two of the big ones include 41 people testing positive from a building in Kapashera in South West Delhi and over 100 cases emerging from Jahangirpuri locality in North Delhi.

Or is the spike because what the government calls a sudden inflow of test reports and aggressive testing? And all this while the number of Covid-19 hotspots (containment zones) came down to 83 from 100 last week.

HIGH-RISK DISTRICTS

Though the government doesn’t share area-wise numbers, three districts — Central, South East and North — have reportedly recorded alarming doubling and fatality rates and more positive cases. There are 11 revenue districts in Delhi.

South East has 18 containment zones, highest in any district and has reported over 1,600 cases. But Central district with nearly 500 cases has just seven containment zones and North with close to 300 cases has eight containment zones.