Delhi hospitals told to be prepared amid rise in Covid cases

In view of the recent increase in Covid-19 cases, the Delhi government Friday issued an advisory, asking hospitals to prepare in terms of availability of beds, oxygen, medicines and vaccines. Experts however assured that there is no cause for immediate worry as there is currently no evidence that the new variants of Covid-19 are more transmissible or severe than earlier ones.

“Ensure all the equipment’s such as ventilators, Bi-pap, oxygen concentrators, PSA are in functional condition,” it said.

The health department directed adequate testing as per Covid guidelines. “Ensure Covid testing of 5% ILI cases and 100% SARI cases,” it said.

The government also asked health institutions to send all positive Covid samples for genome sequencing to Lok Nayak Hospital. It has also instructed all hospital staff to start wearing masks, as part of respiratory etiquettes.

LF.7 and NB.1.8-both offshoots of coronavirus subvariant JN.1-are currently the most common variants, accounting for more than two-thirds of all sequenced cases in Singapore and Hong Kong. The latest spike is being attributed to waning immunity.

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The infection rate in Hong Kong has surged to 11.4% from 1.7% in mid-March, according to data from the Centre for Health Protection, under the department of health in Hong Kong.Gautam Menon, professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, said India could see an increase in flu-like cases in the next few months.Mumbai has reported 95 new Covid cases in May-a significant uptick compared to Maharashtra’s total of 106 since January, according to the state health department.

Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director & senior director – Institute of Internal Medicine at Max Healthcare said India needs to remain vigilant.

“Any such case which comes where there is a suspicion, especially a traveller, should be tested; genomic surveillance testing should be done, and of course, the person should then isolate himself or herself. At this stage, other than this, any mass advice for people at a larger population base is not required because India has yet not reported any increased number of cases,” he said.

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