36 succumb to Covid-19 in Delhi, highest in 60 days

Despite the increase in the absolute number of deaths, the case fatality ratio (CFR) – fraction of people who die among those who test positive – has been on the decline. The cumulative CFR of Delhi since March 2, when the first Covid-19 case was reported in the city, stands at 2.13% so far.

Delhi reported 36 deaths due to coronavirus disease on Tuesday, the highest in over 60 days. Of the 36 deaths, 33 happened on Monday and three on Sunday, according to the daily health bulletin released by the Delhi government.

After a dip on Sunday, Delhi conducted over 62,000 tests for Covid-19, the highest number of tests conducted in a day so far. (Amal KS/HT Photo)

Despite the increase in the absolute number of deaths, the case fatality ratio (CFR) – fraction of people who die among those who test positive – has been on the decline. The cumulative CFR of Delhi since March 2, when the first Covid-19 case was reported in the city, stands at 2.13% so far.

However, Delhi’s CFR over the last seven days stands at just 0.65%, meaning most of the deaths in the city were recorded during the surge in cases in June.

The number of hospitalisations also saw a record high of 6,658, according to Tuesday’s health bulletin. The highest number of hospitalisations on any given day was just over 6,200 during the surge in cases in June.

“The number of deaths are unlikely to shoot up this time as all the treatment protocols have been standardised,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung hospital. About 101 deaths had been recorded in a single day during the previous surge in cases, according to data provided by the CM office.

After a dip on Sunday, Delhi conducted over 62,000 tests for Covid-19, the highest number of tests conducted in a day so far. The city recorded 4,263 new cases – similar to the numbers previously recorded – even with the high number of tests. Of the total tests, only 16.5% were conducted using the more accurate RT-PCR test. The other rapid antigen test is known to throw false negatives.

This resulted in a drop in the positivity rate – fraction of people who test positive among those tested – to 6.8%, according to Tuesday’s daily health bulletin. This is the first time the positivity rate has dipped below 7% since third week of August.