With Delhi’s air quality index taking a nosedive over the past weeks and expected to deteriorate over the weekend, hospitals across the city are witnessing more patients coming in with respiratory issues. Dr Anant Mohan, Head of the Department of Pulmonology at AIIMS, said respiratory cases have increased: “Many people who were previously doing okay are now coming with recent onset exacerbations, worsening of their symptoms, more cough and breathing difficulties.”

Additional firecracker emissions on Diwali day could push the air quality into the ‘severe’ category on Monday and the day after, according to a forecast issued by SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research). Three factors that are crucial in determining air quality around this time of the year are likely to “act together” resulting in deterioration of air quality — wind speed and direction that favours transport of stubble burning smoke from the northwest, calm local weather conditions that trap pollutants, and firecrackers, if any.