Delhi saw a spike in coronavirus cases, prompting an advisory to hospitals in the national capital to ensure the availability of beds, oxygen, medicines and vaccines.
According to Delhi health minister Pankaj Singh, the city has reported 23 Covid cases till Thursday. He added that the government is trying to determine whether the patients are residents of Delhi or have travel history.
He also said the health conditions of all the patients are fine. “We have already held meetings with hospital authorities, and we are ready to deal with any kind of situation. The government has constituted a team of eight senior officers to monitor the situation,” he told reporters.
Delhi is not the only place to have reported Covid cases of late. Several states across India have reported mild infections. According to the Union health ministry, a total of 257 cases were reported across the country till Wednesday.
States such as Maharashtra, Telangana, Haryana, Kerala, Gujarat, Karnataka and more have reported Covid cases recently.
However, according to health ministry officials, the cases are mostly mild and not associated with unusual severity or mortality, as per preliminary information available, reported The Hindu.
The spike comes amid surging Covid cases in Asian places such as Singapore and Hong Kong, two of the biggest commercial hubs of the continent.
According to Singapore’s health ministry, “While the increase in cases could be due to factors including waning population immunity, there is no indication that the circulating variants are more transmissible – or cause more severe cases – than during the pandemic.”
What’s causing the surge?
Omicron family’s JN.1 variant and its related descendants are being the recent spike in Covid cases. The descendants of the JN.1 variant – LF.7 and NB.1.8 – are spreading rapidly, according to the Singapore health authorities.
As per the World Health Organisation, the JN.1 variant has around 30 mutations, and among them are LF.7 and NB.1.8, the two most common versions among the recently reported cases.
However, the Indian health ministry continues to proactively monitor the situation closely and ensure that appropriate measures are in place to safeguard public health.
“Nearly all the cases in India currently are mild, and do not require hospitalisation. Hospitals have been advised to closely monitor influenza-like illnesses and severe acute respiratory infections,” The Hindu quoted a Union Health Ministry official as saying.
Delhi’s Covid advisory
In an advisory issued to medical directors, medical superintendents and administrators of all government and private hospitals, they have been asked to make sure that equipment such as ventilators, Bi-Pap, oxygen concentrators, and more are functional.
All health institutions have been asked to send all positive Covid-19 samples for genome sequencing to Lok Nayak Hospital “so as to enable timely detection of new variants, if any and share the number of samples sent for WGS with State Surveillance Unit”.
The advisory also said that daily reporting of all parameters must also be done on the Delhi state health data management Portal.