Corona count: Fatalities 48, infections 2,248 till date; 1 dies, 92 test positive on day

With 92 more people testing corna-positive and one more dying of Covid-19 in the national capital on Wednesday, the total number of infected cases till date rose to 2248 and the death toll to 48, said Delhi government authorities. No COVID-19 fatality was recorded on Tuesday. Of the total 48 fatalities reported till date, 25 of the deceased were aged 60 or above, accounting for over 52 per cent of the total deaths, they said. Thirteen of them were aged between 50-59 and 10 were aged below 50 years, officials said. By Tuesday night, the number of cases of infection with the deadly virus in the city stood at 2,156 including 47 deaths. With one more death, the death toll from COVID-19 in Delhi has risen to 48.

As many as 724 patients have recovered and the number of active cases are now 1,476, according to the Delhi health department's latest bulletin issued Wednesday. The number of containment zones in Delhi rose to 89 on Wednesday, with two new hostspot zones being added in various areas during the day, said authorities. The West Delhi district has maximum containment zones in the city. Daily house-to-house surveillance and sanitisation of areas under containment is being done regularly in these zones. A population of approximately 3,23,000 people is covered under various containment zones, said officials.

Sample collection and testing is also under process. A total of 55,619 samples have been collected from different containment zones till date, Delhi health department said. Also, of the total 2,248 cases, the health department also shared their age profile. Of these total cases, 1,464 are aged less than 50 years; 359 aged 50-59 and rest 425 aged 60 and above. According to the Delhi Health Department, out of the total 2,248 cases recorded so far, at least 527 are admitted at various hospitals like LNJP Hospital, GTB Hospital, RML Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) and AIIMS Jhajjhar, adding 24 of them are in ICU and six on ventilators.

Total number of COVID-19 samples sent till date stands at 28,309 the Delhi Health Department said in the statement. As many as 34,795 people who came in contact with affected persons, are under home quarantine till date and 22,948 have completed their 14-day quarantine, they said. An order has been issued, to all medical superintendents, medical directors of all Delhi government hospitals to make sufficient arrangements for disinfection of hearse vans and ambulances used for transfer of COVID patients, officials said.

First meeting of empowered group constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 for planning and ensuring implementation of the COVID-19 response activities related to medical emergency management plan, availability of hospitals, isolation facilities, testing facilities, essential medical equipments and logistics and augmenting human resource and capacity building, has been convened, the statement said.

Uber Taxi has offered services of 200 taxis in shift of 12 hours, free of cost to Delhi government till May 3 to help manage COVID-19, it said. An order has also been issued to use these vehicles to carry non-COVID, non-critical patients to and from hospitals in coordination with CATS Ambulance services, the statement said. Besides, orders have been issued for linkage of hospitals with COVID testing centres, it said.