Capital’s Covid tally crosses 20,000; death toll over 500

The doubling rate, more than 15 days until a week ago, has now dropped to about 12 days

NEWDELHI :The number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in Delhi surpassed 20,000 on Monday, three months after the national capital reported its first infection, with 50 new fatalities taking the death toll to 523 amid an increasing rise in patients over the past week.

As the Capital reported 990 fresh cases, the total infections so far rose to 20,834, doubling in nearly 12 days. The number of daily cases on Monday, however, was under 1,000 after the Capital reported infections beyond this mark for four straight days.

The latest 10,000 infections were recorded in 13 days while the first 10,000 took 79 days, beginning in March when a 45-year-old man became the first confirmed patient in the Capital.

On average, 968 new cases were reported every day in the Capital in the last week. In the seven days before that, this number was 571, and it was 403 in the previous week.

Along with the lower number of cases on Monday, Delhi also reported a dip in the number of those tested for the infectious disease. A total of 4,753 test reports came back in the last 24 hours, taking the positivity rate – the percentage of people who test positive among those tested – to 20%. On average, 6,129 people were being tested every day over the last week and the average positivity rate stood at 14.7%.

Experts say the number of cases is likely to rise in the coming says, with the Capital easing restrictions on movement and

› Along with increasing the bed strength, the government also needs to test more. And, cordon off areas from where the cases are reported to prevent further spread. SUJATHA RAO, former Union health secretary

business activity in line with the central guidelines for the latest phase of the lockdown that will be in force till June 30.

The chairman of the chief minister’s advisory committee, Dr SK Sarin, said Delhi was prepared for an increase. “The numbers are likely to increase, not only in Delhi but across the country. But I think Delhi is one step ahead of the disease. One of the recommendations made by the committee… was to create a hospital-hotel-hostel cluster that the government has now started setting up,” said Dr Sarin, director of the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.

“The people most at risk of developing severe symptoms of Covid-19 like the old and those with co-morbid conditions can stay in the hotels/hostels attached with hospitals so that in case there is any deterioration, they can receive hospital care quickly,” he added.

In the week ending May 18, new cases went up 20% from the week before; for the week ending May 25 the rate of increase was up 21 percentage points to 41%; and in the last week, this rate went up another 32 percentage points to touch 73%. This means that the doubling rate, which was more than 15 days until a week ago, has now dropped to about 12 days, highlighting the steep rise in cases recently.

Of the 50 deaths added on Monday, 12 occurred in the previous 24 hours – May 30 through May 31. The remaining deaths were reported over 14 non-consecutive days, the earliest among them on April 7, according to an official.

The Delhi government sent show-cause notices to seven government hospitals in the city over the weekend for delayed reporting of deaths to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme. A three-member death audit committee reviews the case sheets and death summaries of the deaths before declaring them as Covid-19 fatalities in the health bulletin.

With the new deaths, Delhi’s case fatality rate rose to 2.5% on Monday.

The Delhi government plans to ramp up its Covid-19 bed strength to 9,846 by mid-June; among these will be 1,900 beds in three of its hospitals that will treat only Covid-19 patients – Guru Teg Bahadur, Satyawadi Raja Harishchadra, and Deep Chand Bandhu. So far, two of the Delhi government hospitals – 2,500 bed Lok Nayak and 500-bed Rajiv Gandhi Super Specility hospital – were treating Covid-19 patients.

“Along with increasing the bed strength, the government also needs to test more. And, cordon off areas from where the cases are reported to prevent further spread,” said Sujatha Rao, former Union health secretary.

Dr Sarin said that while the lockdown was being eased, people needed to be more careful. “We know that there are at least 30% people who are asymptomatic and don’t get tested or even those who are awaiting their test result can spread the infection. So, people need to behave as if everyone has the infection – they should wear a mask at all times and wash hands properly and frequently,” he said.