Delhi surges again

The festive season proved a superspreader

Just as the trend of recoveries exceeding fresh Covid-19 cases appears to be gathering momentum in India, Delhi is seeing a resurgence that is rapidly turning a surplus of hospital beds earmarked for the treatment of the virus into a deficit. The Delhi government on Tuesday proposed to bring in restrictions on crowding in some markets where Covid-19 norms are not being followed. With the number of cases per day overtaking Maharashtra, the situation is serious enough for the government to consider cancelling the winter session of Parliament, which usually begins in the last week of November. This decision has not yet been announced, but the gravity of the situation is clear from the unusually cordial relations and level of cooperation between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Mr Kejriwal, whose chief ministerial terms have been marked by high-profile confrontations with the Centre, publicly conveyed his thanks to the Central government for helping the “people of Delhi in such difficult times”.

After a Sunday emergency meeting, the two governments have swung into action to augment the number of beds equipped with ventilators and the supply of blood plasma. Doctors and paramedic staff from other states — some from as far as Assam and Tamil Nadu — have also been flown in to help, and started arriving on Monday. And from Tuesday, some 10,000 additional RT-PCR tests will be available to take the daily testing capacity to about 28,000 per day. The mammoth 10,000-bed Covid-19 facility, set up by the Defence Research and Development Organisation just months ago with beds, is getting ready to add beds with oxygen facilities.

The speed and intensity of action are admirable, but they may have been unnecessary had the two administrations understood the value of the old adage of prevention being better than cure. It is no coincidence that this contrarian surge in the state has coincided with the festive season. Popular markets bursting at the seams with mask-less shoppers and the crowding of beauty parlours ahead of Karva Chauth, Dussehra, and Diwali have all been efficient super-spreader occasions. An assessment by the NITI Aayog highlighted the widespread and wilful violation of safety norms by Delhi-ites during this time and predicted that the number of cases could rise from 361 per million currently to 500 per million in the coming weeks as a result.

This surge points to unsatisfactory policing and monitoring as well as poor awareness levels, which the Centre and the state administration should have anticipated. Such basic moves as manning markets to enforce the standard safety norms of wearing masks and social distancing — simple steps that have proved extremely effective against contracting the virus — should have been given priority. Instead, the Delhi Police appeared to have expended a disproportionate amount of time and effort chasing drivers and passengers of vehicular traffic for such safety violations. Mr Kejriwal is now personally appealing to people “with folded hands” to wear masks and observe the six-foot distancing norm. The message would be better reinforced if it were expanded into a widespread integrated communication campaign, especially in slums and less affluent areas of the city where the danger of community contagion is high. These are simpler and cheaper ways of containing the spread of the virus and may have saved the government the effort and expense that is going into expanding the virus-specific hospital and health care infrastructure.