Delhi crossed the grim milestone of 20,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday with 347 fatalities being reported over the past 24 hours. Of these, 5,000 deaths were reported in the past two weeks alone.
It took 161 days to reach the first 5,000 deaths in the Capital. Just 83 days later, the toll crossed 10,000. After this, the number of new cases and deaths started dipping. It took another 135 days for the toll to reach 15,000.
After a peak in November 2020, daily infections and deaths dipped steadily till March 2021. On February 9, no COVID-related death was reported in the city for the first time since June 2020.
ADVERTISEMENT
The city started registering a spike in cases and deaths towards the end of March. By mid-April, the city was frequently reporting over 300 deaths daily, which rose to 400 in May. The latest COVID surge saw the city’s health infrastructure buckle under the record number of deaths and infections.
Over the past 15 days, the test positivity rate (TPR) and number of new cases has dipped slightly. The number of fatalities has also come down. The BJP has alleged that the actual number of deaths in the city is far higher than the official figures, but this has been denied by the Delhi government.
As per Tuesday’s health bulletin, the city reported 12,481 new cases, taking the tally to 13,48,699. The death toll stood at 20,010.
ADVERTISEMENT
A total of 70,276 tests were conducted in a single day and the TPR was 17.76%, down from 19.1% on Monday.
The TPR had shot up from 3.5% on April 1 to 36.2% on April 22. Since then, it has been steadily falling.
There are 83,809 active cases in the city.
Of the total 23.221 beds, 18.02% were vacant, but only 60 ICU beds were available, as on Tuesday evening.