13,468 new cases, 81 deaths; hosp admissions tightened

New Delhi: Covid-19 cases in the Capital rose to a record for the third consecutive day on Tuesday as government officials here reported 13,468 fresh Coronavirus infections and 81 more deaths from the virus amid the raging fourth wave of the pandemic.

Significantly, the new cases on Tuesday came out of over 1.02 lakh tests conducted in the last 24 hours, leaving a daily positivity rate of 13.14 per cent, up from 12.44 per cent on Monday. Comparing data from all four waves of the pandemic so far, the current one has spiked the fastest.

The city had recorded 131 COVID-19 deaths on November 19, the highest single-day fatality count to date.

Around 78,000 cases have been recorded in Delhi in the last 10 days, according to official data. The number of containment zones increased to 6,852 from 6,175 a day ago, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, a little over 89,000 people were vaccinated on Tuesday, with over 73,000 of them getting their first dose and the rest getting their second dose. Over 22.3 lakh people in the city have been vaccinated in the city so far. And with the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases in the city, the Delhi government has directed health facilities to strictly follow admission protocol while admitting Coronavirus patients and said mild or asymptomatic cases can be considered for home isolation. The government has warned of action for failure in adherence to laid down admission protocol.

Moreover, even as the Delhi government has swiftly moved to declare 14 large private hospitals as Covid-only, administrations and staff in these facilities struggled to re-assign non-Covid-19 patients.

Awaiting clarification from the Delhi government, a senior official of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said that patients with prior appointments will be examined in the private OPDs.

While they were exploring ways to implement the government's order, medical director of Max Super Speciality Hospital Dr K K Trehan said that they were trying to cause minimum inconvenience to the existing patients. In fact, CM Kejriwal on Tuesday said that hospital admissions are being controlled carefully and appealed to all that they not get admitted to a hospital unless absolutely needed. He said banquet halls and other care facilities are rapidly coming up in the city for milder patients who do not need intensive care. He added that doctors are also asking patients without serious illnesses to recover at home. "This is not the hospital or the government shirking from responsibility, not at all," he said, adding that planned surgeries must be delayed for the time being but emergency surgeries will continue.