Covid-19 fourth wave scare: Cases rising in Delhi but people not developing severe disease, says Satyendar 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 (April 28, 2022).

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.

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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.

The Central government authorised a third dose of the same vaccine for healthcare and frontline workers, and the people aged above 60 from January 10 to mitigate the severity of infections, hospitalisation, and death.

On April 10, the administration of the precautionary dose to the 18-plus population through private vaccination centres started across the country. 

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