New Delhi: Delhi government data has revealed that the national capital added almost a lakh cases between 1 October and 29 October, with the positivity rate nearly doubling too.
Thursday marked a new record with the highest yet single-day spike of 5,739 cases. With this, daily cases continued to touch record highs for a third day. However, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said it was too early to say whether Delhi was seeing a third Covid wave or not.
As of Thursday, Delhi recorded a total of 3,75,753 cases with 6,423 deaths and 3,38,378 recoveries.
Also read: Festive season fallout? Delhi sees 4,000-plus Covid cases for 3 straight days
Record highs in October
Delhi government data reveals that between 1 October and 29 October, Delhi added a total of 96,038 cases. Daily cases almost doubled in this period, increasing to 5,739 from 3,037.
Daily cases crossed the 5,000-mark for two consecutive days — 28 October (5,673) and 29 October (5,739).
Positivity rate on the rise
With cases increasing, Delhi’s positivity rate has almost doubled through October, setting a worrying trend. What makes matters more grim is that testing numbers have remained more or less constant.
The positivity rate increased to 9.55 per cent on 29 October from 5.48 per cent on 1 October, government data showed. The national positivity rate during the same period declined to 7.54 per cent from 7.75 per cent. A 10 per cent positivity rate is considered problematic and also indicates that not enough testing is being done.
#IndiaFightsCorona#Unite2FightCorona
India has exponentially scaled up its TESTING capacity from one in January to more than 10.65 cr at present.
The very high testing has resulted in the continuously falling POSITIVITY RATE.
It is 7.54% presently. pic.twitter.com/G0TjinVL9A
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) October 30, 2020
In the same period, Delhi’s testing numbers, though, remained more or less static. Between 1 October and 29 October, daily tests increased to 60,124 from 55,423.
However, there was an increase in RT-PCR tests, considered the gold standard for Covid-19 testing, and a slight decrease in the number of Rapid Antigen Testing, a far less sensitive test that yields false negatives.
RTPCR tests climbed to 17,029 by 29 October from 9,969 on 1 October. In the same period, Rapid Antigen Tests decreased to 43,095 from 45,454.
ThePrint had reported that the Arvind Kejriwal government had been continuing to focus on rapid antigen tests despite being pulled up by the Delhi High Court, for “wasting testing capacity” and not conducting 15,000 RT-PCR tests daily, the maximum capacity possible.
Also read: RT-PCR, antigen, antibody, TrueNAT — all you need to know about the different Covid tests
Is there a third wave?
The Delhi government says the change in testing strategy is what has led to the latest spike in cases.
“We have changed our strategy by strengthening our contact tracing system now. We are seeing a surge in daily Covid-19 cases not only because more people are coming out owing to the festivities, but also because of this change in strategy,” Health Minister Jain said Thursday.
Delhi’s new strategy includes testing every person who has come in contact with a Covid-positive case, irrespective of whether they are symptomatic or not. “This is why the positivity rate is increasing. So, now we are trying to test 5-7 contacts per Covid case to break the cycle of infection,” Jain added.
This is why it’s too early to say whether Delhi is witnessing a third wave, said the minister, who had contracted the infection himself.
Delhi reported its first spike on 23 June when 3,957 cases were recorded. The second spike was recorded on 17 September when 4,432 cases were reported. Thursday’s 5,739 cases marked the third spike.
“It is a bit early to say that Delhi is experiencing the third wave. We must wait for another week in order to definitively say that. But it is also possible that we’re already in that phase or are headed towards it,” Jain said.
ThePrint had reported that the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) expert committee, headed by Niti Aayog member V.K. Paul, had submitted a report to the Delhi government saying the national capital should be prepared for a daily surge of 15,000 positive cases.
Also read: Severity, lethality, defence: How new coronavirus stacks up against seasonal influenza