Active Covid-19 cases in Delhi below 30k, but number of daily deaths remains a concern

The number of Covid-19 deaths has seen a steady rise over the last seven days. On an average, almost 37 deaths has been reported daily during the last seven days as compared to almost 35 the week before and 24 daily deaths a day a fortnight ago.

Delhi saw the number of active Covid cases drop to below 30,000 for the third day in a row on Monday.

A health worker in PPE coveralls collects a swab sample from a person for coronavirus testing, at a government dispensary in New Delhi on Monday. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

This has happened after ten days, according to the daily health bulletins released by the Delhi government.

There were 27,123 active cases as on Sunday, fewer than the highest 28,329 active cases reported during the surge in June. The maximum peak in active cases during the current surge was 32,250, recorded on September 18, data shows.

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The number of deaths, however, has seen a steady rise over the last seven days. On an average, almost 37 deaths has been reported daily during the last seven days as compared to almost 35 the week before and 24 daily deaths a day a fortnight ago. The higher number of fatalities due to Covid-19 reported during the week, has led to an increase in the seven-day case fatality ratio (CFR) – fraction of deaths among those who tested positive for the infection – to over 1% for three days in a row.

It was as low as 0.68% in mid-September as per the data.

“We should not look at single day fatalities because the patients do not die the same day they are diagnosed with the infection, people who have been infected before die over a week or ten days. That is why we look at the ten-day average case fatality ratio. And, there will be a decline in the number of deaths also as the cases have declined,” health minister Satyendar Jain had said during a media interaction on Sunday.

There has also been a decline in the number of hospitalisations. As on Sunday, 6,659 people with the infection were admitted across hospitals in the city as per the data. This is lower than the highest number of hospitalisations recorded on September 21 when 7,051 patients with Covid-19 were admitted to city hospitals.

“There is slowly a decline in the number of Covid-19 patients getting admitted to the hospital over the last week or so. The number of cases being reported in the city is still high at about 3,000 a day and it might go up in the winters like other infectious diseases,” said Dr Neeraj Gupta, professor of pulmonary medicine at Safadarjung hospital.

Delhi only reported 1,984 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, however this is a result of fewer tests conducted over the weekend. Only 36,302 tests were conducted on Sunday as compared to an average of 57,669 tests conducted each day during the week. The positivity rate – fraction of samples that return positive among the samples tested – dipped below 6% to just 5.47% on Sunday, the data shows.