'COVID-19 deaths reduced by 44% in early July compared to early June'

New Delhi: Data released by the Delhi government on Sunday showed that the Capital has managed to significantly reduce the number of COVID-19 deaths in July compared to those of the last month. According to an analysis of deaths in early June (June 1-12) and early this month (10-12), the city had reduced Coronavirus deaths by 44 per cent. While Delhi had seen 1,089 deaths in early June, that number came down to 605 in early July.

Significantly, Delhi has also managed to reduce the number of deaths due to delays in admission to healthcare facilities. For instance, in early last month, nearly 67 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths in the Capital occurred within four days of the patient being admitted to a hospital and 34 per cent of the deaths occurred within 24 hours of admission. In comparison, early this month, fatalities within four days of admission had come down by almost half to 35 per cent of all deaths and those within 24 hours of admission had dropped to 15 per cent.

According to the data analysis by the Delhi government's Health Department, deaths in state-run COVID-19 hospitals had declined by 58 per cent in the above-mentioned period, private hospitals saw a reduction of 25 per cent, and facilities run by the Centre recorded a decrease of 55 per cent.

The Chief Minister's Office, in a statement, on Sunday said the decrease in deaths here was brought about by implementing key intervention strategies like providing oximeters to patients in home isolation, increased ambulance strength and faster response times, focus on ICU beds in hospitals and widespread testing in both containment and non-containment zones.

A more recent analysis of data showed that from July 1-23, RML Hospital had the highest death rate (i.e. total deaths out of total admissions) at 39 per cent, followed by Safdarjung Hospital (35 per cent), GTB Hospital (22 per cent), AIIMS Delhi (20 per cent), LNJP Hospital (15 per cent) and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (7 per cent).

Officials said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has directed focus towards government hospitals with the highest death rates or those having the highest proportion of fatalities in general COVID-19 wards.