With more than 20,000 cases being recorded on a daily basis, surveillance officers are hardly able to complete the tracing exercise.
Delhi on Tuesday saw a record 28,395 cases, with 277 deaths. According to a report by Hindustan Times, the massive jump in cases has made the screening of contacts extremely difficult.
“The jump in cases is more than 10 times compared to previous months. We’re only focusing on tracing contacts of those who live in containment zones. But, very soon, this will also become impossible given the increase in the number of containment zones. If 20,000 persons are testing positive every day, then ideally, we have to trace 10 contacts of each person, which means we have to trace 2,00,000 people over the phone. Till the end of March and early April, contact tracing of everyone was happening, but now it’s not possible. We are focusing on people who live in containment zones,” a district surveillance officer told Hindustan Times.
In February, Delhi reported an average of 150 cases daily, which increased to 747 in March. Between April 4 (when cases started rising) and April 19, the city has reported an average of 12,978 cases every day. On Tuesday, according to the state government’s health bulletin, Delhi reported 28,395 new cases of infection.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged the Centre to provide medical oxygen to Delhi, saying some hospitals are going to run out of it in a few hours. He had on Sunday termed the shortage of oxygen for coronavirus patients an “emergency”. Kejriwal also wrote to Union Minister of Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal, seeking his intervention in the matter. “Serious oxygen crisis persists in Delhi. I again urge the Centre to urgently provide oxygen to Delhi. Some hospitals are left with just a few hours of oxygen,” the chief minister tweeted.
Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia flagged ‘jungle raj’ with oxygen supplies being stopped and disrupting operations. “People supplying oxygen from other states are being stopped on the way. There should be no jungle raj between the states on the supply of oxygen, for this, the central government will have to be very sensitive and alert,” he said.
The Delhi government had on Monday set up a 24-member committee to ensure “rational” use of oxygen for treatment of Covid-19 patients An order issued by the Health Department said the ‘Oxygen Audit Committee’ will identify areas of wasteful consumption. The consumption of oxygen has undergone a quantum increase with the admission of a large number of serious patients who require oxygen support, it said.
Around 2,700 beds will be added at different hospitals and facilities in the national capital in the next few days for COVID-19 patients, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced on Tuesday and assured people that there is no need to panic. As the coronavirus crisis deepened further, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a six-day lockdown in the national capital from 10 pm on Monday till 5 am on April 26, saying it was necessary to deal with the rising number of COVID-19 cases as the city’s health system was stretched to its limit.
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