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Capital adds 5,664 new Covid cases, 51 more deaths
New Delhi: The Capital on Sunday recorded 5,664 new cases of Covid-19 and 51 fatality, taking the toll to 6,562, as per state government’s daily health bulletin.
New Delhi: The Capital on Sunday recorded 5,664 new cases of Covid-19 and 51 fatality, taking the toll to 6,562, as per state government’s daily health bulletin.
So far, 392,370 people have contracted Covid-19 in the Capital, of whom 352,635 have recovered, the bulletin said.
With 44,623 total tests recorded on Sunday, the positivity rate shot up to 12.69% — up from an average of 5.3% recorded for the week ending October 8. The positivity rate stood at 11.42% on Saturday.
The case trajectory in Delhi shows three distinct surges. The first started in mid-June, and peaked when the seven-day average of daily cases, also known as the case trajectory, touched around 3,400 in the last week of June. This dropped to about 1,000 a day by the end of July. It remained in that range for a month, and the second surge started towards the end of August, rising till the middle of September, when average daily cases touched 4,174
Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain said on Sunday, “In Delhi, the contact-tracing strategy was revised around two weeks ago. Currently, more than 15 contacts are being tested for every Covid-19 positive case, as against six to seven contacts per case till two weeks ago. The aggressive strategy is bringing out more cases in terms of numbers.”
“As far as preparations are concerned, last month, we added 1,000 ICU beds. Another order pertaining to reservation of 80% ICU beds in private hospitals for covid-19 cases is pending in court. At this point of time, people must wear masks and treat it like a vaccine till a real vaccine is available,” Jain added.
On Sunday evening, 6,561 of the 15,783 Covid-19 general beds and 2,086 of 3,158 ICU beds were occupied across hospitals in the city, government records showed.
Dr Lalit Kant, former head of the epidemiology and communicable diseases in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, “The increased positivity rate indicates high transmission rate of the virus at this point. To some extent it also indicates that the government is currently testing a greater proportion of high-risk individuals, which include close contacts of Covid-19 positive cases. People should not let their guards down. They should strictly wear masks and maintain social distancing.”
