With 46 deaths due to coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Delhi saw the highest single-day fatalities in 72 days, according to the daily health bulletin released by the Delhi government. The city had reported 58 deaths due to the viral infection on July 16 during the previous surge in cases.
So far, 5,193 people have died of the infection in the city.
With this, the seven-day case fatality ratio (CFR) – the fraction of people who died among those who tested positive – went up to 1%. The average seven-day CFR has been increasing steadily over the last two weeks, from just 0.68% recorded 14 days ago.
“The city had seen an increase in the number of cases, with over 4,000 cases being recorded each day. However, the patients admitted to the hospitals do not die on the very first day; they die over a period of time which is probably the reason for the increase in the number of deaths that we are seeing now. With the number of cases now slowly stabilizing, I think the number of deaths will also be controlled over the next week or so,” said Dr Neeraj Gupta, professor of pulmonology at Safdarjung Hospital.
The cumulative CFR – calculated on the basis of the total number of cases and deaths reported in the city – however has been on a steady decline, with the figure standing at 1.94% in Saturday’s bulletin. This indicates that a higher proportion of the deaths in the city happened during the surge in cases in June and July. The highest number of deaths reported in a day during that period was 101, according to data provided by the chief minister’s office.
{{/usCountry}}The cumulative CFR – calculated on the basis of the total number of cases and deaths reported in the city – however has been on a steady decline, with the figure standing at 1.94% in Saturday’s bulletin. This indicates that a higher proportion of the deaths in the city happened during the surge in cases in June and July. The highest number of deaths reported in a day during that period was 101, according to data provided by the chief minister’s office.
{{/usCountry}}Dr Gupta said, the hospitals are slowly reporting a decline in the number of serious patients. The daily health bulletin shows that the number of hospitalisation as on Friday was 6,840, which was lower than the 7,019 hospitalisation on average reported during the last seven days.
The number of cases also saw a dip in Saturday’s health bulletin, with only 3,327 new Covid-19 cases being reported in the city, despite over 57,000 samples being tested. The positivity rate – fraction of samples that return positive among the total samples tested – has also seen a decline, with it dipping below 6% for the first time since mid-August when very few cases were being reported. The positivity rate stood at 5.77% as per Saturday’s health bulletin.