In 50 days of lockdown, number of Covid-19 cases in Delhi increases 254 times: Report

Delhi recorded 406 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, taking the tally of cases in the city-state to 7,639.

Delhi completed 50 days of lockdown on Tuesday. And in these 50 days, the national capital saw the number of Covid-19 cases rise by 254 times, an analysis of the health ministry’s figures by Hindustan Times’ Hindi language publication Hindustan shows.

A railway officer uses a magnifying glass to check the travel document of a man upon his arrival at a railway station to board a train to New Delhi after a limited reopening of India's rail network on May 12.(Reuters Photo)

There were just 30 positive Covid-19 cases in Delhi till March 24, a day before nationwide lockdown came into effect. It increased to 7,639 by May 12, Hindustan reported. This is because of a spike in numbers in May with 200 to 400 Covid-19 positive cases being recorded every day.

Also, only one person had died due to the coronavirus disease till March 24. This number now stands at 86. In the second phase of the lockdown, the fatalities in Delhi had reached 59 till April 30. In the first phase of the lockdown (from March 25-April 14), 29 people had died due to the disease, according to Hindustan.

Delhi, meamwhile, recorded its highest number of Covid-19 deaths in a single day - 13 - on Tuesday. The highest single-day Covid-19 toll so far was six deaths, recorded on April 16.

The Delhi government’s health bulletin on Tuesday showed that with 8,431 tests, the total number of tests in the city crossed the 1,00,000-mark. This puts the number of tests per million in Delhi at around 5,200, the highest in India.

On Tuesday, 383 people recovered from the viral infection, taking the number of recoveries to 2,512 so far in the city-state. This puts Delhi’s recovery rate at almost 33 per cent, mirroring the national average of about 32 per cent.

Along with the 13 deaths, Delhi also reported 406 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, taking the tally of cases in the city-state to 7,639. This puts the doubling rate in the city at about 11 days, lower than the 13 days recorded at the beginning of the month.

It is not just the number of cases that have gone up. The number of people in the intensive care units of the city has also more than doubled from around 50 persons at the end of April to 111 on May 12. The number of people on ventilators has gone up from just five on April 30 to 20 on May 12.