Delhi logs 1,513 new cases in biggest spike yet; death toll up by 50

According to the government’s daily health bulletin, Delhi recorded 1,513 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 23,645.

The Capital on Wednesday recorded over 1,500 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), for the first time.

In Wednesday’s bulletin, 50 deaths were added to the fatality count till June 1, taking the total deaths to 606. (Photo by Samir Jana / Hindustan Times)

According to the government’s daily health bulletin, Delhi recorded 1,513 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 23,645.

In Wednesday’s bulletin, 50 deaths were added to the fatality count till June 1, taking the total deaths to 606. The deaths since then were still being audited by the panel formed for the purpose.

Of the new deaths recorded on Wednesday, only nine took place in the 24 hours of May 31 through June 1, according to the report. Of the rest, the earliest took place on April 15.

The Delhi government had, over the weekend, sent show cause notices and memorandums to seven government hospitals for delaying their death reports.

“It is very difficult to judge the situation because of numbers not being available in the public domain or delayed reporting. We know that the absolute number of deaths will go up with the increasing number of cases, but has there been a change in the proportion or case fatality rate? That is something the clinicians will have to see. And, if the case fatality rate is indeed going up, then that is a cause of concern. Also, we are not testing asymptomatic people, so we do not know what the actual number of cases are and whether we indeed have the same case fatality rate as the global average or less than that. It is possible that our case fatality rate is lower considering our younger population,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung hospital.

The Delhi health bulletin also shows that the number of beds earmarked for the treatment of Covid-19 patients shot up by 1,655 over the last 24-hours. This is mainly owing to the addition of the 1,500 beds at Guru Teg Bahadur hospital.

The Delhi government on Wednesday declared all of Moolchand Hospital and Saroj Hospital, and 80% of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital as Covid-19 treatment facilities. These hospitals have received subsidised government land and will have to earmark 10% of the beds for poor Covid-19 patients. In total, 80 such beds have been reserved for poor Covid-19 patients.

Currently, 3446 people with severe symptoms such as respiratory distress and oxygen saturation below 90% (normal is 95 to 100%) are admitted to hospitals. This means, about 25% of all the active cases — or those still living with the infection — need hospitalisation in Delhi.

This is higher than the national average of 6%.

As per the data, 255 people in Delhi are currently admitted to the intensive care unit. The break-up of the number of people on ventilators has been removed from the daily health bulletin. On Tuesday, the number of people on ventilators had shot up to 0.7% of the active cases as against 0.48% national average.