The city witnessed 5,482 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 5,56,744, according to a health bulletin released by the Delhi government on Friday.
Also, 98 more deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths to 8,909. Of the total cases, 5,09,654 people have recovered and there are 38,181 active cases.
Also, out of the total 18,287 beds available for COVID-19 treatment, 9,372 were vacant. There were 5,229 containment zones as on Friday.
Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the entire population of Delhi can be inoculated in a “few weeks” once the government gets the vaccine.
“In Delhi, three times more testing is being done as compared to the rest of the country... We have the infrastructure and system to inoculate the entire population of Delhi in a few weeks, once the vaccine is out. We have mohalla clinics, polyclinics, hospitals and other facilities where we can inoculate people,” he said.
Minister on testing
The Minister added that the positivity of RT PCR tests was 30% on November 7 and now it is about 15.4%.
Also, the positivity of the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) has gone down from 8.39% to 2.61% and the overall positivity has fallen by 45%, he added.
The government is expected to start civil and electrical works on two floors of government-run Rajiv Gandhi Superspeciality Hospital, which will be used as a storage facility for the COVID-19 vaccine, once the vaccine is available.
“We have given the ground and first floor of the utility block to the Delhi State Health Mission (DSHM) for using it as a vaccine store. The DSHM will start civil and electrical work in one or two days. Currently, it is an empty space,” said Chhavi Gupta, spokesperson of Rajiv Gandhi Hospital.
She said the DSHM had surveyed the location last month and the process has been going on for the last one to one-and-a-half months. When asked about the storage facility in Rajiv Gandhi Hospital, the Minister said there will be many storage facilities.