New Delhi: After showing a gradual decline in the last week of September, the number of COVID-19 patients under home quarantine in Delhi has risen in October, according to official data. The number of COVID-19 patients under home isolation was 19,213 on September 21 and 18,464 the next day. The figure fell further to 17,834 on September 23, when the number of containment zones stood at 1,987.
The cases under home isolation, however, showed a rising trend on September 24 (17,995) and September 25 (18,096). From September 26-30, the cases of home isolation fell gradually for five consecutive days until October 1, when the count rose to 15,899 and containment zones stood at 2,616.
The number of home isolation cases and the containment zones during September 26-28 in that order were: 17,600 (2231); 17,291 (2380); 16679 (2465); 16049 (2505); and 15657 (2570), according to official data. The national capital recorded 40 COVID-19 fatalities on Thursday, taking the death toll to 5,401, while 3,037 fresh cases pushed the tally to over 2.82 lakh, authorities said.
On September 29, the city reported 48 deaths, the highest number of fatalities in a day since July 16, when the figure stood at 58. On September 26, Delhi recorded 46 COVID-19 deaths, 42 the next day and 37 on September 28. On September 30, the death count stood at 41.
On the fall recorded in home isolation cases, experts had earlier said that the decline could have been due to patients getting better and completing their home isolation period or some patients at home being transferred to COVID-19 care centres. The Delhi government had been laying a lot of emphasis on home isolation, especially for asymptomatic patients as part of its COVID-19 management strategy in the past several months.
On the fresh rise recorded in home quarantined cases, experts feel that many people not observing social distancing norms or wearing masks in public may have contracted infection asymptomatically. “As testing capacity has also been boosted, these cases could be throwing up many asymptomatic ones, who as per protocol are told to self-isolate at home. So that could be one reason for the rise in its count,” a senior doctor of a Delhi government hospital said.
The Delhi government has significantly ramped up COVID-19 testing in the past few days. The number of tests conducted and corresponding fresh cases reported, ranged from 24,198 (2,312) on September 1 to 61,973 (4,071) on September 19.
Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine at Apollo Hospitals here, Dr Suranjit Chatterjee said, “We are at crossroads right now in this COVID crisis”. “While we know many things about this virus and its behaviour, it is still springing up a surprise. How is it going to behave further and affect humans, we need to still fathom that, as in what kind of cases will come up more, symptomatic or asymptomatic, we don’t know yet.
“We have to just combat it and people need to shake off the complacency that everything is normal just because the economy has been reopened. Asymptomatic cases could be roaming next to them,” he said. The COVID-19 cases have shown a surge since last month with September 16 recording 4,473 cases, the highest single-day spike here till date.
The daily cases in Delhi had breached the 4000-mark for the first time on September 9, when the death count was 20, and the cumulative fatality 4,638. On the same day, the total number of cases in the city had crossed the 2-lakh mark. The home isolation cases on July 1 stood at 16,703 with 437 containment zones marked in the city. On July 31, the home isolation cases count had come down to 5,763, while the containment zones had risen to 692, according to official data.
On August 3, the number of COVID-19 patients under home isolation and containment zones, both came down to 5,577 and 496, respectively. On August 25, there were 5,949 home isolation cases and 654 containment zones or localised areas from where infections were reported.
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