Delhi: 80% drop in Covid-19 home isolation cases in last two weeks

Amid a decline in daily Covid cases in Delhi, the number of patients under home isolation here has gradually fallen to 2,361, a steep drop of 80 per cent in the last 14 days, according to official data.

The number home isolation cases in February 1 was 12,312.

The number of containment zones, which were also slowly falling in this period, also registered a dip in its count to 16,154 on February 14 from 37,116 on February 1, according to official figures shared by the health department.

On February 14, the home isolation cases count stood at 2,361, registering a fall of 80 per cent in the figures in the last two weeks.

The number of daily cases in Delhi has been on the decline after touching the record high of 28,867 on January 13.

The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the ongoing wave of the pandemic.

It took just 10 days for daily cases to drop below the 10,000-mark.

Over 750 deaths due to Covid were reported in Delhi in total during the month of January, according to official data. The number of fatalities recorded in a day, too has registered a significant fall.

Delhi had on January 23 reported 9,197 Covid cases with a positivity rate of 13.32 per cent and 34 deaths.

On February 14, the city logged 586 cases with a positivity rate of 1.37 per cent, and four deaths.

The surge in Covid cases in Delhi during the third wave of the pandemic, was due to the Omicron variant of the virus which is highly transmissible.

Family after families in a large number of neighbourhoods had tested positive, but medical experts have said that since the infection had happened at the same time, the recovery too has been quicker for the community as a whole, and there has been less chance of more spread of infection as people have been largely home isolated with a very little number of patients needing hospitalisation this time.

Also, as per revised Covid management protocols issued by the government earlier, the span of home isolation has also reduced for such some category of patients whose fever last for only three days or less.

The Union Health ministry had earlier said that COVID-19 patients under home isolation would stand discharged after at least seven days from testing positive and no fever for three successive days, in revised guidelines for home isolation of mild or asymptomatic cases.

The number of home isolation cases on January 1 had stood at 3,248 and the containment zones count that day was 1,243 according to official data.

By January 31, the home quarantined cases had risen to 14,328 while the containment zones count that day stood at 38,046.

The positivity rate which had breached the mark of 30 per cent on January 14, also significantly came down to 1.37 per cent on February 14.

Experts had flagged that crowding due to festive season and laxity in adhering to COVID-19 safety norms, among other factors, had contributed to the massive surge in daily cases recently.

Late December, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that the government also has been focusing on strengthening its home-isolation module and directions had been issued to hire agencies for treating patients in their home.