Covid-19 cases rising but people not developing severe disease, says Jain

New Delhi: COVID-19 cases have increased in the capital but the situation is not serious as people are not developing severe disease and hospitalisation rate is low, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday.

He attributed the low hospitalisation rate to vaccinations and naturally acquired immunity. The minister also said there is no need to panic about cases among children with several serosurveys showing that they are not at high risk for severe Covid though the infection rate among children and adults is almost the same.

"Though Covid cases have increased in Delhi, people are not developing severe disease and the hospitalisation rate is low. This is because our population is fully vaccinated and a large number of people have had the disease in the past. So, the situation is not serious," Jain told reporters here.

Earlier, when Delhi would have 5,000 active cases, 1,000 people would require hospitalisation, he said.

Of the 9,390 beds available for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals, only 148 (1.58 percent) are occupied.

"We have around 1,000 beds at present. We will ramp up their number if needed," Jain said.

With the national capital witnessing an uptick in coronavirus infections over the past few days, the number of active cases on Wednesday stood at 4,832, up from 601 on April 11, according to health department data.

However, the hospitalisation rate so far has been low, accounting for less than 3 per cent of the total active cases, the health department's bulletin said on Wednesday. As many as 129 COVID-19 patients are admitted to Delhi hospitals while 3,336 are recuperating in home isolation, it said.

According to the Cowin dashboard, 1,47,01,155 people in Delhi have been fully vaccinated, while 7,18,788 have taken the third or precautionary dose.

Meanwhile, Delhi's fresh COVID-19 cases rose by nearly nine per cent in last 24 hours as the city recorded 1,490 infections on Thursday and two deaths while the positivity rate stood at 4.62 per cent, according to data shared by the health department.

The infection tally in the national Capital rose to 18,79,948 and the death toll was 26,172, the bulletin stated.