New Delhi: A newborn diagnosed with COVID-19 has been admitted to LNJP Hospital here, its medical director said on Thursday (April 13), as he cautioned that coronavirus cases in the national capital will peak in the next couple of weeks. Delhi’s single-day caseload additions on Wednesday breached the 1,000-mark for the first time in over seven months while the positivity rate stood at 23.8 per cent, according to data shared by the Health department.
The national capital logged 1,149 fresh cases and one fatality on Wednesday. Dr. Suresh Kumar, the medical director at LNJP Hospital, told PTI during an interaction that wearing masks has been made “mandatory” at the facility.
The 2,000-bed British-era facility is the largest hospital under the Delhi government.
Children are not vaccinated, so we need to take precautions for them as they are getting symptoms like fever, cough, eye infection and stomach infection as well. This variant (XBB.1.16) is affecting children more. An 18-day-old newborn has even been admitted to our hospital and the child is Covid positive, he said.
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Four more children are admitted to the hospital, Dr. Kumar said.
It is better to wear masks in schools and public places and even senior citizens should wear masks. Precaution is surely better, he said.
We will see the peak of Covid cases in one-two weeks and the graph will go down from thereon, DR. Kumar said, adding, We have made all arrangements in the hospital for patients, including children, as they are coming in more numbers with infection.
Delhi Education Minister Atishi on Thursday said the government is reviewing the situation and guidelines for schools will be issued soon.
The national capital has witnessed a spurt in single-day caseload additions over the last fortnight amid a sharp rise in H3N2 influenza cases in the country. The number of fresh cases had dropped to zero on January 16, the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Amid a gradual increase in the number of Covid cases in Delhi, medical experts have said the virus’ new XBB.1.16 variant could be driving the surge. However, they maintained that there is no need to panic and people should follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and get their booster shots.
Mock drills were conducted at hospitals in Delhi on Tuesday to ascertain their preparedness to tackle the disease amid a surge in cases in the national capital.
The drill was conducted as part of a nationwide exercise to take stock of hospitals’ preparedness to tackle the surge in Covid cases.
Dr. Kumar said more cases are being reported in the city but there is no need to panic.
Only 10 patients have been admitted to our hospital while 440 Covid beds are vacant. The objective of the exercise is to ascertain our preparedness in terms of availability of essential medicine, equipment and staff, he had said on Tuesday.
The Health department on Wednesday said 221 of 7,944 beds in the city’s dedicated Covid hospitals are occupied while 1,995 patients are in home isolation.
The number of active cases currently stands at 3,347, it added.
Talking about the recent Covid-related deaths, Dr. Kumar has said only those who had severe comorbidities such as tuberculosis, cancer and chronic lung diseases, among others, succumbed to the infection.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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