Delhi’s nearly 13.5k new Covid cases worst ever for any Indian city

New Delhi: The daily tally of Covid-19 breached all records on Tuesday with the city reporting 13,468 new cases in 24 hours. This is the third-highest in the country, after Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, both of which are much bigger in area and population size than the national capital.

Earlier, on Sunday and Monday, Delhi had recorded 10,774 and 11,491 new cases, respectively. The city also recorded 81 deaths due to Covid-19. It is the highest since December 3 when 82 deaths were recorded.

Due to the massive rise in cases, the hospitals are overwhelmed. Data on real-time availability of Covid beds shows 64% of the total beds are occupied. The occupancy of Covid ICU beds with and without ventilator stands at 90% and 82%, respectively.

Lok Nayak, Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty, AIIMS Jhajjar, VIMHANS, Holy Family, Manipal, Max Patparganj and Shalimar Bagh, and Apollo hospitals have no ventilator beds available at all.

Nearly 5% of Covid-19 patients develop severe symptoms. Such patients require critical care support which may include respiratory therapy using a high-flow-nasal canula or conventional ventilator. Given the situation of bed availability, doctors say, many patients requiring critical care may develop complications or even die due to the lack of timely intervention.

Many hospitals are also reporting a shortage of anti-viral drugs and convalescent plasma. “The demand for convalescent plasma has gone up four to five times in the past week. We are, therefore, giving it only to patients who are able to provide a replacement donor to maintain availability,” said an official at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences that houses a plasma bank.

Doctors say Covid-19 is happening in all age groups, including the young and children. Even people who have received both doses of the vaccine available in the country are developing the infection but the symptoms are not so severe in such cases, said Dr Rommel Tickoo, director of internal medicine at Max Hospital.

“Till about a week ago, we had eight Covid-19 patients who required ventilator support. The number has gone up to 28 now,” Dr Sumit Ray, head of the critical care division at Holy Family Hospital said.

Delhi’s total tally of Covid-19 has crossed 7.5 lakh which is the sixth highest in the country after Maharashtra (35.2 lakh), Kerala 11.8 lakh), Karnataka (9.9 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (8.8 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (9.5 lakh). With 11,436 deaths, Delhi’s toll is fourth highest in the country. Maharashtra has reported the maximum of 58,526 deaths, followed by Karnataka (13,008) and Tamil Nadu (12,945).

The positivity rate of cases in the national capital went up to 13.1% on Tuesday from 12.4% a day earlier. Tuesday’s 13,468 cases came out of over 1 lakh tests conducted the previous day. Around 78,000 cases have been recorded in Delhi in the past 10 days, according to official data.

Delhi recorded 7,897 Covid-19 cases and 39 deaths on Saturday. The positivity rate had also surged to 10.2%, breaching the 10% mark for the first time this year. The positivity rate was above 15% in mid-November last year, when the pandemic was at its peak.