Delhi COVID-19 death toll nears 400; National capital records 1,106 new cases

Delhi added 82 more deaths to COVID-19 toll taking the total to near 400-mark on Friday when the capital recorded 1,106 new cases, highest spike in a single day.

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Of the 82 deaths, only 13 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours while rest 69 took place over a period of 34 days prior to that, which were "reported late" by hospitals. The death toll has now climbed to 398.

This was disclosed by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia during a digital address with Health Minister Satyender Jain. Usually, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal do these digital addresses but he has avoided it on Thursday too when Delhi crossed the 1,000 mark in cases in a single day to settle at 1,024.

With 1,106 fresh cases, the total number of cases has now touched 17,387. In May alone, 13,868cases have been reported, which is 79.76% of the total cases. Since May 18 when lockdown 4.0 came into effect with more relaxations, there were 7,362 cases or 53.08% of the cases reported this month so far.

On the deaths, Sisodia said 52 of the 69 deaths, which were reported during 34 deaths, were from Safdarjung Hospital.

As of now, 7,846 people have recovered so far, including 351 who were discharged on Thursday.

He said there was no need to panic as Delhi’s rate of recovery was around 50%. "Cases are increasing across the country and there is rise in Delhi too. But there is no need to panic. There is no need to be scared," he said.

People need not rush to hospitals unless they show symptoms of virus infection, he said.

"There is this fear that once somebody tests positive, they have to be admitted to a hospital. We get a lot of panic calls too. But if the symptoms are not severe and you are overall asymptomatic, you should confine yourself to an isolated room and quarantine yourself. Other family members should maintain a safe distance and keep their homes sanitized," Sisodia said.

Jain said Delhi has more than 5000 beds --1,400 in private hospitals and 3700 in government hospitals -- for COVID-19 treatment. The number of patients currently on the ventilator is 28 while Delhi has more than 300 dedicated ventilators available currently.

Delhi Congress president Anil Choudhary said it was "very shocking" that Delhi has jumped to No 3 position in COVID-19 cases in the country.

"We have been maintaining that the death figures supplied by the Kejriwal Government were not true, which has been proved to be true as the death toll reported up to May 29 puts at 398 with the rider that 69 death cases were old, thereby substantiating Congress’ charge," he said.

"Kejriwal should apologize to the people of Delhi for misguiding and misleading them regarding the actual COVID-19 data, as in the last two days Delhi has reported over 1000 new cases each to jump into the third place in overall COVID-19 cases in the country. The main reason for the spike in cases was that Kejriwal has been taking unilateral decisions," he said.