Coronavirus / Coronavirus cases cross 12,000-mark in Delhi, 5,897 patients recovered till now

New Delhi: Delhi reported 660 fresh cases of Coronavirus in the last 24 hours taking the total number of confirmed cases in the capital to 12,319 on Friday. For the last four days, the city has been recording 500 and above cases in a day with 2,265 cases during this period. The death toll in the city has breached the 200 mark with 14 more deaths updated in the government’s bulletin. The total number of deaths in the city is 204 now.

There has been a sudden spurt in cases since Delhi opened up after three phases of lockdown. On May 19, the city reported 500 positive cases in a day, the number soon increased to 534 cases in a day on May 20, and to 571 on Thursday. The highest number of cases were reported on Friday.

A total of 5,897 people have recovered in the city. The recovery rate Friday stands at 47 per cent, higher than the national average of 41 per cent.

A three-member committee formed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to gauge the healthcare infrastructure in the city had prepared a plan for three stages in the city. The first stage when cases will be reported in a day, the second stage when 500 cases are reported in a day and the third stage when the number of cases in a day goes up to 1,000.

The calculations of the committee were based on the study published in New England Journal of Medicine on February 28. The study called Early Transmission Dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel Coronavirus–Infected Pneumonia was conducted by a group of researchers to analyse the data on the first 425 confirmed cases in Wuhan to determine the epidemiological characteristics of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)–infected pneumonia (NCIP).

For the second stage, the committee suggested that if 500 cases are reported in a day, then the requirement of PPEs will shoot up to 1,500-2,000 PPEs in a day. There should be 50 beds with ventilators, 125 ICU facilities and about 325 beds with oxygen support. At present, there are 1,835 people admitted in 14 COVID-19 designated hospitals and 9.2 per cent of them are admitted in the ICU. There are 27 people on ventilator support. A total of 2,881 people are under home isolation.

The government is working towards increasing the number of beds in the city. Kejriwal had said that the government has readied 2,000 beds with oxygen support for COVID-19 patients and in the next few days, the city will have 4,000 beds in Delhi to deal with the severe patients of COVID-19.