Thread by @soutikBBC

THREAD: Delhi is seeing an intense Covid-19 winter surge, driving the total number of cases to more than 540,000 and fatalities to over 8,600. Doctors fear the capital may well become the epicentre of India's first wave of winter infections 1/10
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Hospitals are flooded with patients and intensive care beds are filling up fast. People are struggling for beds. Even I cannot get a bed for my friends or family, it is so bad," @DrHarjitBhatti, a private hospital doctor, said. 2/10
#Covid19 #DelhiFightsCorona

My colleague, @BBCVikas, who went to admit a relative at a prominent private hospital last week, found there was a "waitlist" of 250 patients for Covid-19 beds. "It's worse than in the summer. It's insane." 3/10
#COVID19 #DelhiFightsCorona

The surge has been sparked by the opening up of offices, factories and markets, and increased social mingling during a busy festival season. It has also been exacerbated by falling temperatures and rising air pollution. 4/10
#COVID19 #DelhiFightsCorona

"Patients are arriving in clusters this time. We are seeing families and friends getting infected and hospitalised with the virus after attending festivals and frequent and repeated indoor gatherings," ICU specialist @farahhusain19 said. 5/10
#COVID19 #DelhiFightsCorona

"I have had a married couple or a mother and her son being admitted to critical care with the infection at the same time," Dr Husain said. Doctors are also reporting an uptick in the number of younger patients this time. 6/10
#COVID19 #DelhiFightsCorona

"A lot of patients" are between 25 and 45 years. "Nearly a third of my patients are in that age group. They are also reporting high viral loads, hinting at repeated exposures to infected people," Dr Husain said. 7/10
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Frontline health workers are exhausted. Doctors working in many state-run hospitals are working 15-day-shifts, and quarantining for a week at a hotel or facility before returning to work after clearing a Covid-19 test. Many haven't gone home in weeks.8/10
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Doctors are also handling a deluge of phone calls from panicky people. "I get more than 50 calls a day now from people asking me where to get beds, what to do, and enquiring about symptoms. And the calls are coming from all over the city," says Dr Bhatti. 9/10
#COVID19 #Delhi

"We are still riding the peaks in the middle of the first wave. Apart from the brief respite the infection never really abated. People thought it did, and now we are back to square one," says Dr Husain. 10/10
Here's our story bbc.in/2Jb9wAS
#COVID19 #DelhiFightsCorona