Two deaths and 125 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Delhi on Wednesday, taking the toll to 56 and total number of cases to 3,439. Of the total cases, 1,092 people have recovered and there are 2,291 active cases.
Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said that the doubling time for number of COVID-19 cases in the city has increased to 13 days, which is higher than the national average of 10 days.
“It (virus) is not spreading fast. Earlier in Delhi, the doubling time of cases was four-five days,” the Minister told media.
He added that as per central government guidelines “people without symptoms or light symptoms can be isolated and treated at home now... they do not have to go to the hospital”.
More doctors infected
The Minister further informed that although the number of containment zones in the city was increasing, 90% of the areas have not reported new cases. He also said that over 200 people working in hospitals have been infected.
An intern doctor working at Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital has tested positive for COVID-19, the hospital authorities said on Wednesday. At least 13 staff working at the hospital have tested positive for the virus so far.
“The intern is stable,” a hospital official said. Three patients at the hospital have tested positive so far and one of them, a 45-day-old infant, died recently.
Also, two more doctors working at Delhi government’s Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital have tested positive, taking the total to at least 37. “One is from the medicine department and the other is from the pulmonary department. Now, at least 37 staff from the hospital have been infected,” a hospital official said.
A resident doctor of Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), who was interning at RML Hospital has also tested positive. “She is asymptomatic and has been isolated,” a LHMC Hospital official said.
On a related development, 13 family members of an infected dietician working at Lok Nayak Hospital have contracted the virus, a hospital official said. At least six people working at the hospital have tested positive so far.Earlier in the day, an official at Delhi government’s Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital, where a total of 75 employees have tested positive, said that no new cases were reported on Wednesday.
Days after the Personnel Secretary of District Magistrate (South West) tested positive for COVID-19, two more people working at the office were confirmed infected on Wednesday, an official said. The DM had tested negative and the office was sanitised and is functioning.
Meanwhile, the Delhi government ordered all Deputy Commissioners not to send any sample for COVID-19 testing to the National Institute of Biologicals in Noida till May 3 due to “considerable pendency” in testing.
