Covid peak has arrived in Delhi, cases to decline now: Satyendar Jain

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday said that the peak of third Covid-19 wave has already arrived in the capital city and now the cases may soon register a decline.

"Covid peak has already arrived in Delhi. Lets see when the cases begin to decline. However, it seems that the cases have begun to slow down in the city", Jain said.

Delhi witnessed a slight dip in the daily cases at 24,383 on Friday which is expected to go down further today. The daily Covid cases are expected to reduce by around 4,000 on Friday. "Today, Covid-19 cases in Delhi are expected to be reduced by 4,000. However, positivity rate will be around 30 per cent. The hospital admission rate has not risen for last 5 to 6 days", said Delhi health minister.

Talking to media, Jain further said that such a fall indicates that cases are going to be fewer in the coming days. He said that around 85 per cent of total hospital beds are still unoccupied.

However, the Covid testing in the city has also slightly been reduced. Delhi recorded around 79,578 Covid tests on Friday which included 61,183 RT-PCR tests and 15,395 Rapid Antigen tests in 24 hours. On being asked, whether less Covid testing can be attributed to the fall in the cases, Jain underlined that Delhi is following the Centre's guidelines on testing. "We have not reduced the testing in Delhi," he said.

In an advisory issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research earlier this week, ICMR has said that the contacts of confirmed cases of Covid-19 do not need testing unless identified as high risk based on age and comorbidities. The guidelines also said that asymptomatic individuals in community settings do not need testing.

---IANS

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