Only 12% Delhi Covid-19 cases are in official records, says report

• A majority of people with all the Covid symptoms are skipping the RT PCR test, says a new LocalCircles report.
• Only 12% cases in Delhi-NCR may be recorded as a part of official figures.
• The number of people with all the symptoms going for testing saw a steep decline in August, as per the report.

The Covid-19 test positivity rate in the national capital of India touched 15% on August 7, as per the Delhi government. However, this might not be the actual figure on ground.

A large number of symptomatic patients are avoiding a test or going for the at-home rapid antigen test and skipping the RT-PCR, according to a survey by LocalCircles.

The report says that only 12% of the people who had all the Covid symptoms in the last one month took the RT PCR test. As many as 63% of them took no test at all, Of this, and 37% are taking the at-home rapid antigen test. Only 12% are re-validating the test with a RT-PCR.

This means that 2 out of 3 people are not getting the test and treatment.

“This means that for potentially 100 people with symptoms, only 12 of them are being registered in the official numbers reported by Delhi Government and other NCR district administrations,” says the LocalCircles report.

The surge in cases in Delhi and NCR regions like Faridabad, Ghaziabad is mostly led by the Omicron sub variants BA.2.75 and BA.5. It is largely due to lack of restrictions on activities, public places being open and schools, colleges, workplaces all functioning at 100% capacity.

Experts suggest that the only way to curb the number of rising Covid cases is to bring back the mask, social distancing and other important Covid measures in practice again, especially in the national capital.

The number of people, who possess all the Covid symptoms and going for a test, saw a steep decline in August as compared to April and June this year, as per the report. It fell down from 33% in April to 16% in June to 12% in August.

Despite low testing, the positivity rate shot up to 15%, which is the highest for this year.

“All of this points to an urgent need for authorities of Delhi and NCR cities and the Union Health Ministry to find alternate ways of tracking the extent and spread of COVID. Lower number of RT-PCR tests also indicate availability of fewer samples for genome testing to understand what variants are in circulation in India,” the report says.

The survey received 10,821 responses from citizens located in all districts of Delhi-NCR. 67% respondents were men while 33% respondents were women.

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