Delhi's Covid-19 caseload reducing, most deaths due to comorbidities: Minister

Delhi and Mumbai, two cities recording the highest cases of coronavirus disease, turned their Covid graph, reporting a dip in cases and signalling what appears to be a plateauing of infections.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said on Sunday that most of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) deaths in the national capital had resulted due to comorbidities and that cases have been reducing for the past three days. Although the positivity rate of the national capital remains above the 30 per cent-mark, up from 29.21% two days ago, Jain said it, too, will reduce with time as patients currently hospitalised have mostly proved to be in a stagnant medical state.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain  (File Photo / ANI)

“Cases have started reducing for the past three days but we will look at a substantial decrease for the next 3-4 days,” the Delhi minister was quoted as saying by the ANI news agency. “The positivity rate will reduce with time as patients admitted to hospitals are stagnant. Most of the deaths were due to comorbidities.”

Satyendar Jain, the health minister of Delhi, further said that less testing does not equate to fewer Covid-19 cases. “Mild, asymptomatic, or high-risk contact cases, everyone gets tested,” he said. “We [the health authorities in Delhi] are conducting three times more tests than that required by the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines.”

India's Covid-19 infections have spiralled to see more than a lakh cases daily over the past week as the Omicron variant spreads to every corner of the country. The fresh tally of infections increased from about 1.8 lakh on Monday to nearly 2.7 lakh on Saturday, as per data available on the Union health ministry website.

Delhi and Mumbai, two cities recording the highest cases of coronavirus disease, turned their Covid graph, reporting a dip in cases and signalling what appears to be a plateauing of infections.

On Saturday, Delhi reported a further 15 per cent dip in its daily Covid-19 numbers, recording 20,718 new cases in 24 hours. This was the second day in a row that the coronavirus tally in the national capital continued to decrease after it showed a hike for four consecutive days earlier.

The number of patients admitted to hospitals due to coronavirus, however, climbed to 2,618 on Saturday, up from 2,446 on Friday and 2,369 on Thursday. A total of 2,620 people are currently hospitalised in Delhi and barring the 2,518 patients who have confirmed Covid-19 infections, as many as 102 are suspected cases of the virus.