The third peak is longer but “may decrease in the coming days”: Satyendar Jain said (Archive)
New Delhi:
The duration of the third spike of COVID-19 spread in the national capital is longer than previous spikes but could decrease in the coming days, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Wednesday.
Interacting with journalists, he claimed that the city government has significantly increased testing by almost three times on average per day compared to the number of tests conducted when the second peak came around September 16, when more than 4,000 daily cases.
The minister also said that the city government had filed a special license petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court after Delhi’s high court did not allow 80 percent of ICU beds to be reserved for COVID-19 patients in Many private hospitals here, and the superior court has asked the government to approach a division bench of the superior court.
“About two to three months ago, we had written to the Center to increase about 1,000 beds and 300 ICU beds in the Center-run hospitals in the city,” added Mr. Jain.
Delhi registered more than 7,800 new COVID-19 cases for the first time on Tuesday, bringing the infection count in the national capital to more than 4.5 lakh and 83 new deaths, the highest figures since June 16.
This highest single-day peak to date (7,830 cases) resulted from 59,035 tests conducted the previous day, while the positivity rate stood at 13.26 percent amid the holiday season and the increase in pollution in the city, according to the latest bulletin. issued by the Delhi health department.
The previous highest single-day peak to date here, 7,745 cases, was recorded on Sunday.
On Tuesday, 83 new deaths were recorded, bringing the death count in the national capital to 7,143. As of June 16, the city had recorded 93 deaths from COVID-19.
When asked about the long period of increase in cases, Jain said that in the previous peak, which had lasted between 5 and 6 days, the tests carried out were around 20,000 per day and now the number of tests is almost three times higher.
The third peak is longer, but “could decrease in the next few days,” he said.
Delhi recorded 71 deaths from COVID-19 on Monday and 5,023 new cases. On Saturday and Sunday there were 79 and 77 deaths from the disease, respectively.
The active case count on Tuesday rose to 41,385 from 39,795 the day before, while the recovery rate stood at more than 89 percent.
The bulletin said that the total number of cases increased to 4.51,382.
Meanwhile, seeking to reduce coronavirus-related deaths in the national capital, the Delhi government ordered COVID-19 testing centers to mandatorily check the oxygen saturation levels of people, and people who come across them. a level less than 94 percent must undergo a mandatory medical examination.
“We are also doing RT-PCR tests in large quantities,” Jain said.
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