Second Wave Of Covid-19 In Delhi? Apprehensions Mount After Eruption Of Cases

Delhi Corona Cases on 3 September 2020: After a brief calm, Delhi has seen a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases over the last few days. Wednesday's 2,509 fresh cases pushed the city's tally to 1,79,569.

(Photo by SANJAY KANOJIA / AFP)

Coronavirus: After managing to keep relatively low numbers on Covid-19 for two months, the national capital again saw an eruption of cases with over 2500 fresh cases reported on Thursday fueling apprehensions of a second wave. The eruption of cases is however not unique to Delhi as India overall recorded the highest surge of 83,883 corona positive cases in the last 24 hours. The country's overall tally has mounted to 38,53,406, while the death toll climbed to 67,376 as 1,043 people succumbed to the disease in a single day. After a brief calm, Delhi has seen a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases over the last few days. Wednesday's 2,509 fresh cases pushed the city's tally to 1,79,569, while 19 more fatalities took the toll to 4,481, according to authorities. Thursday’s numbers were however low. Health Minister Says 'Cannot Call It A Second Wave' As per Delhi’s health minister Satyendra Jain, the latest eruption must not be considered as a second wave as there was never a time of zero transmission. He said that cases were always coming up and people should not stress about numbers. He said the Delhi government is increasing the testing for COVID-19 and it wants that there should be no positive case in the city. "You cannot say it is a second wave. We could have called it a second wave if there were no positive cases for one or two months and then cases would have started coming again. The virus is still there in Delhi. You should not stress about numbers,” he said. Pointing out the case fatality ratio, Jain said it was 0.75 per cent on Wednesday, which is a good sign. "Overall, it is 2.5 per cent. Yesterday, it was less than one per cent, which is a good sign. At one time, it was 3.5 per cent," he added. Jain said the Delhi government is working to increase testing for COVID-19. "We are increasing (the number of) tests. We are emphasising on testing and working aggressively on it. Yesterday, the number was around 30,000 and today the number of tests will be around 35,000. If a case is isolated at home or hospital, he won''t be able to infect 10 people. We want that not one positive case should be there," he said. Meanwhile, the national capital is gearing to restart its metro lines after a hiatus of over five months. He said government is formulating protocols for travelling in the Delhi Metro, which will resume from September 7 "A dry run is also being conducted so that it can be ensured that people wear masks, clean their hands, follow social distancing norms and a COVID-19 appropriate behaviour," he said.