Delhi’s daily Covid-19 count dips slightly with 22,933 cases; one-day toll at 350

Hospitals in Delhi have reported a shortage of oxygen and beds for several days now even as the Aam Aadmi Party-led government has been seeking support from the Centre as well as other states.

Delhi on Sunday reported a single-day surge of 22,933 Covid-19 cases, slightly less as compared to what the city has been reporting for the past few days, and the toll from the viral disease in the last 24 hours stood at 350, according to the latest data released by the health department.

A view of oxygen beds inside the Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre, at Chhatarpur, in New Delhi on Sunday. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

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The daily positivity rate which was at 32.27% on Saturday slipped to 30.21% on Sunday. The low figures, however, may be attributed to the reduced testing in the national capital. While the daily Covid-19 testing count was at 85,620 last Sunday, it now stands at 75,912. The number of people infected by the coronavirus in Delhi has gone up to 1,027,715 following which the government, earlier in the day, announced an extension of lockdown in the city till May 3 morning.

Hospitals in Delhi have reported a shortage of oxygen and beds for several days now even as the Aam Aadmi Party-led government has been seeking support from the Centre as well as other states. Amid the acute shortage of oxygen, hospitals have also started to turn away patients and shift those already admitted for treatment. Hospitals as well as citizens of the national capital have been taking to social media to seek help in availing oxygen, key drugs like Remdesivir, and also finding ICU beds and those with oxygen.

On Saturday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to all states and Union territories requesting them to send oxygen that they may have in spare so as to assist the treatment of critically ill patients. Kejriwal also reached out to the country's top industrialists over the oxygen shortage. “Please help the Delhi government if you have oxygen and tankers... Help us in whatever way you can,” he wrote in a letter, according to news agency ANI.

As Delhi reels under the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centre has been sending supplies of oxygen to hospitals in the city and has also arranged for four tankers of the gas that are likely to arrive by Monday night on an Oxygen Express from Chhattisgarh.