Former IMA secretary urges Delhiites to act responsibly amid rising COVID-19 cases

The former secretary of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Dr. Ravi Malik on Saturday asserted that there is a need to guard against carelessness in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi. Malik further advised people to be careful as air pollution is rising in the national capital.

"Carelessness has slowly crept inside people's mentality regarding COVID-19. We have started seeing public gathering and large scale functions. We are witnessing the rise of cases in Delhi. At this time, people should be careful because pollution has also started rising and there is smog," Dr Malik told ANI.

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'Each one should act responsibly'

Adding further he said during the winter season, the respiratory illness spreads quickly and each one should act responsibly and regain the momentum that they had earlier. He also said the last pandemic came in four waves and lasted nearly three years.

While commenting on the rise in COVID-19 cases in Delhi for the past few days and the total count of COVID cases in the country surpassing 87.73 lakh, Dr. Malik said there is a need to learn from some European countries who have been forced to impose lockdown again due to the growing number of cases and they were struggling to deal with the virus despite the availability of resources.

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"If they are forced to impose a lockdown then we are not any different. Everybody should be personally accountable for oneself. And this surge of cases must be curbed," he said.

He also asked the Delhi residents not to underestimate air pollution. For some reason, people are taking air pollution lightly, he said. Air pollution will attack the lungs and COVID-19 will also attack the lungs, he added. Due to air pollution, there are high chances for COVID-19 related deaths to increase and in order to curb the spread people need to manage the situation by doing their bit including the government, he said.

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COVID-19 situation in Delhi

On Saturday, Delhi recorded 7,340 COVID-19 cases in a day taking the infection tally to over 4.82 lakh. With 96 new fatalities during the same period, the death toll in the city rose to 7,519, according to the authorities.

These fresh cases were discovered from 49,645 tests, including 19,635 RT-PCR ones, conducted the previous day and the positivity rate in the city was 14.78 percent amid festivities and rising pollution, according to a bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

On Wednesday, the highest single-day spike of 8,593 cases was recorded with 85 fatalities recorded on the same day. On November 12, the number of fatalities was 104, the highest in over five months. On Saturday, 96 more fatalities were recorded, pushing the death toll in the national capital to 7,519, the bulletin said. The tally of active cases in the national capital on Saturday rose to 44,456 from 44,329 the previous day.

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(With ANI inputs) (Image-ANI)