Tag: Delhi coronavirus

  • Containment zones in Delhi go up from less than 1,000 to nearly 24,000 within fortnight

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Amid the soaring COVID-19 cases in Delhi, the number of containment zones have gone up from less than 1,000 to nearly 24,000 within the past fortnight, officials said on Thursday.

    There were 800 containment zones in the national capital on December 30, 2020.

    According to the latest official figures, the number rose to 23,997 by mid-January.

    South Delhi topped the list of 11 districts in the city with 8,383 containment zones.

    The districts with higher number of containment zones included West Delhi at 4,109, Central Delhi at 3,493, and New Delhi at 2,354.

    The lowest number of containment zones were in East Delhi at 151, North East Delhi at 279, North West at 547 and South West Delhi at 851.

    ALSO READ: Government must vaccinate elderly, ailing persons against COVID-19 at the earliest – Delhi High Court​

    A residential area or an apartment is contained usually if three coronavirus-infected people live there.

    However, district authorities have discretionary powers to declare a residential area a containment zone if even one person is found infected.

    Most of the containment zones in Delhi are micron ones with less than three patients.

    Currently, an infected person with mild symptoms or without any symptom has to undergo seven days’ home isolation.

    Amid COIVD surge, Delhi government suspends routine, elective surgeries at LNJP, GTB hospitals

    The Delhi government has suspended routine and elective surgeries at the LNJP and the GTB hospitals to deal with the surging coronavirus cases in the national capital, officials said.

    Delhi on Thursday reported 28,867 COVID-19 cases, the sharpest single-day spike since the pandemic began, and 31 deaths, while the positivity rate surged to 29.21 per cent, according to health department data.

    Delhi’s previous biggest daily jump of 28,395 cases was recorded on April 20 last year.

    On Wednesday, Delhi had reported 27,561 Covid cases, and 40 deaths.

    ALSO READ: Only hospitalisation data can’t determine if peak is over – Experts on COVID wave in Delhi

    “In view of the surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in Delhi, it is hereby directed that routine/elective surgeries shall be suspended in LNH and GTB Hospitals of GNCTD, till further orders,” an order issued on January 11 said.

    According to Delhi Corona app, the LNJP Hospital has 750 designated oxygen beds for Covid patients and 154 of these are occupied.

    At GTB Hospital as well, there are 750 beds and 41 are occupied.

    Delhi logs record 28,867 COVID cases, positivity rate rises to 29.21 per cent

    Delhi on Thursday reported 28,867 COVID-19 cases, the sharpest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic, and 31 deaths, while the positivity rate surged to 29.21 per cent, according to health department data.

    Delhi’s previous biggest daily jump of 28,395 cases was recorded on April 20 last year.

    According to the data, Thursday’s positivity rate is the highest since May 3, when it was 29.6 per cent.

    On Wednesday, Delhi had logged 40 deaths, the highest since June 10 last year, when 44 fatalities were recorded.

    The city had recorded 23 deaths on Tuesday and 17 each on Monday and Sunday.

    A total of 164 Covid deaths have been recorded in the first 13 days of January.

    Most of these patients had comorbidities, according to government data.

    ALSO READ: ‘Data indicates covid cases will go down soon’ – Delhi Health Minister on Omicron situation

    The capital saw 130 fatalities in the last six months — nine in December, seven in November, four in October, five in September and 29 in August.

    In July, Covid claimed 76 lives in the city.

    The national capital currently has 94,160 active Covid cases, of which 62,324 are in home isolation, the health department bulletin stated.

    At present, 2,369 Covid patients are admitted to Delhi hospitals.

    Of these, 98 are on ventilator support, it said.

    A total of 98,832 tests, including 80,417 RT-PCR ones, were conducted the previous day, it added.

    The data showed that 2,424 of the 15,433 hospital beds in the capital are occupied and 84.29 per cent are vacant.

    Earlier in the day, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said hospital admissions due to Covid have stabilised in the city over the last four days, but the number of cases and the positivity rate have seen an increase.

    “The number of hospital admissions has stabilised over the last four days. Cases are increasing but the hospital admission rate has not increased in the same proportion. The increase in cases can be attributed to the increase in the number of tests in Delhi,” he said.

    The city’s death audit committee, which met on Wednesday, found that fatalities have mostly occurred among those with co-morbid conditions, the minister said.

    According to its analysis, most of the 97 Covid patients who died between January 9 and January 12 had co-morbidities.

    Seventy of them were not vaccinated and 62 were aged below 60.

    Among those who died, seven were aged below 18, 37 were in the 41-60 age group, 18 were aged between 19 and 40, and 27 between 61 and 80.

    Eight of them were aged above 80.

    Jain told reporters that the hospital admission rate when 27,000 cases are being reported is the same as when 10,000 cases were recorded.

    “This is an indication that the wave has plateaued,” he said, adding that the hospital admission rate is a “major indicator of the situation” and not the number of infections or the positivity rate.

    He expressed hope that cases will start declining soon.

    In his view, there is no need for increasing the number of beds in hospitals at present.

  • 48% Indian parents not willing to send their kids to schools till vaccinated: Survey 

    While several states started partial reopening of schools in October last year, physical classes were again suspended following the exponential rise in the COVID-19 cases during the second wave.

  • Central govt hospitals in Delhi add 1,000 more Covid beds to keep up with patient numbers

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review the preparedness of the four central government hospitals in the national capital amid a shortage of beds, oxygen, and ICU facilities for a high number of Covid patients.

    In a statement issued later, the government said that Safdarjung Hospital is augmenting the bed availability with 172 more Covid beds, and with this, the super-specialty block at the hospital would be fully converted to a specialty block for only infected patients.

    Besides, 46 beds including 32 ICU beds are being added with help of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

    ALSO READ | Modi govt’s vaccine policy allowing Serum Institute to earn ‘super profits’: Experts

     At the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML Hospital), the government said that 200 additional beds were being created for Covid patients.  In Lady Hardinge Medical College, 240 more beds are being created by CSIR which will become operational soon.

    The Director of AIIMS (New Delhi) outlined the expansion plans for adding more beds in other wards. The total capacity will be enhanced to more than 1,000 beds for only Covid patients, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

    Vardhan said the government directed to expedite installation of 5 Pressure Swing Adsorption plants at all locations in Delhi hospitals and asked them to be prepared with expansion plans for providing timely treatment to the Covid patients in the days to come.

    “A decision was also taken to install DRDO-Tata Sons oxygen generation plants at AIIMS, NIC Jhajjar, Safdarjung, LHMC, and Dr. RML Hospital immediately,” said the statement adding that these plants will have a capacity to generate 1000 litres of oxygen per minute.

  • COVID-19: 11 states & UTs of ‘grave concern’ told to step up efforts  

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Eleven states and Union Territories have been earmarked as “states of grave concern” on account of their rising daily Covid-19 cases and higher daily deaths, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba underlined at a meeting with states on Friday.

    These states/UTs Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Haryana contributed 90% of the total cases, as on Wednesday, and 90.5% of deaths in the last 14 days, and have crossed or are close to crossing their early reported peaks during last year. 

    ALSO READ | Second Covid wave fast-n-furious, 10 states fighting infection explosion

    It was pointed out that the situation was particularly worrying in Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh. Maharashtra was advised to take up immediate and high effective measures to ensure containment of active cases and daily deaths through adherence of the standard clinical management protocol shared earlier with all states. 

    Another worrisome aspect pointed out was that tier 2 and tier 3 cities along with peri-urban areas have been recording the recent spike. That the spread of infection from these to rural areas with weak health infrastructure would overwhelm the local administration was also highlighted at the meeting.

    ALSO READ | No lockdown without consulting Delhi public: CM Arvind Kejriwal

    States were instructed to follow several measures to bring down daily fatalities, which included increasing the number of isolation beds, oxygen beds, ventilators and ICU beds and planning for adequate oxygen supply. They were also asked to strengthen ambulance service and reduce response time and refusal rate with regular monitoring by local administration 

    Gauba also told the chief secretaries and other senior state authorities that the administration should review case fatality rate hospital-wise, devise appropriate strategy and mitigate concerns regarding late admission in hospitals and non-adherence to national clinical management protocol.