Delhi-Mumbai will show everyone the way

Posted on 27th Jul 2020 by rohit kumar

The number of people infected with Covid-19 in the country is continuously increasing, but the two metros of the country, Delhi and Mumbai, can show the way in dealing with this health crisis where the efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus seems to be largely successful. The number of new daily cases in Delhi has come down significantly. More than 3,000 cases were confirmed daily in June, but last week the number of new cases was reduced to about 1,000. In both Delhi and Mumbai, the daily growth rate of infection cases has come down to a one percent level.

 

Experts say that due to the decrease in the number of infections, the spread of the epidemic is not increasing and efforts are being made to expedite the investigation in both the cities, as well as the strictness of quarantine is being shown. In addition to identifying contact with the infected in densely populated slums like Dharavi in ​​Mumbai, successfully implementing quarantine is a lesson in how to increase the participation of common people to control the epidemic in such areas.

 

In both cities, a door-to-door survey was conducted with the help of ASHA workers and NGOs (NGOs) to identify and quarantine patients with symptoms. Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner of Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation said, “The population density and geographical scope of Mumbai is a big challenge for us. We have a strong team of 3,500 community health volunteers who were working with us and these same people surveyed. Anyone with SPO2 levels below 95 percent was taken to the COVID Care Center and kept under observation. Sharing the results of the Siro survey of Delhi, VK Paul, member of NITI Aayog and chairman of Empowered Group 1, said, 'The disease was growing rapidly in Delhi even without taking any new steps but these measures were more strictly By applying, we can control the number of infected people. However, the number of deaths in both Delhi and Mumbai is the highest in the country and a bad phase was witnessed in these metropolises when patients had to wander a lot to get beds in the hospital which brought the health system in disarray. Experts say that now that the crisis seems to be under control, the two cities need to assess their data to understand what steps have worked and what did not work. Professor Rakhal Gaitonde at the Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum says, "The responsibility to teach the nation is on Delhi and Mumbai to see what these metros have done right and things have proved wrong". These metros have extensive experience in the treatment of critically ill patients.

 

For example, Mumbai adopted a three-pronged approach. People with symptoms were initially identified through door-to-door surveys, strict monitoring of oxygen, and glucose levels of patients. The early use of steroids and antiviral drugs such as tocilizumab and remdesvir was emphasized. Dr. Avinash Supe, former dean of Mumbai's KEM Hospital and a member of the state task force set up for Covid-19, said, "First of all, Mumbai took some of these clinical management decisions against the whole country. This is because there was always a high number of patients here.

 

Sue said that cases of infection are seeing stability and now about 8,000 new patients are being confirmed in a week. Sue said, 'It is important to spread the protocol in the districts hospitals because it will improve the recovery rate of patients. The second area is related to the investigation. In the first week of June, when Delhi was conducting an average of 9,500 tests per day, then positive cases were 37 percent. In the first week of July, the number of investigations has been increased to more than 25,000 and the rate of positive cases has come down to 9 percent. However, experts point out that in a recent serosurvey, it was found that 23 percent of the population has been affected by the virus and hence the detection of infection cases has been very low. It also means that the total number of deaths due to Covid is also not covered correctly.

 

Virologist Jacob John said, "There should have been more cases of infection in Delhi in July than in June." The city did not make any widespread forecast about the epidemic, nor was any adequate preparation made for it.

 

According to thyrocare's pin code data, the presence of antibodies in the population is close to 34 percent in Delhi and 27 percent in Mumbai. Some experts believe that we will not be protected from viruses until the level of antibodies reaches 70 percent.

 

Gautam Menon, Professor of Computational Biology and Theoretical Physics at Ashoka University, said, 'A seroprevalence of 30–40 percent is large enough that it can also be said to be successful in controlling the infection. I think that taking strict steps to control infection in hotspot centers could have helped Delhi. ' However, the issue of community immunity in the context of Covid is still a subject of research and the target for infection is between 40 and 70 percent. Dr. A. Velumani, managing director and chief executive officer of Thyrocare, said, “Roughly 15 percent of the Indian population has antibodies. It is 40 percent in metros while it is close to 5 percent in smaller cities. Antibody and RT PCR tests aside, the capacity of antigen test kit in Delhi and Mumbai has increased considerably, although it has not yielded accurate results in many cases. It is estimated that more than half of the people in Mumbai with antigen test negative will have RT PCR test positive. Antigen test has shown to be negatively negative in 15% of symptomatic patients in Delhi. The corona is now spreading to the interiors of the country where there are not enough resources compared to national and financial capitals. In such a situation, the path is still not easy for the government and the people.