Active cases lowest in 36 days
New Delhi: Delhi on Wednesday reported 1,647 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total tally here to 1,16,993 but active cases came down to 17,807 — lowest in the last 36 days. The Delhi government said 95,699 patients have recovered from the contagious disease and only 4,021 of them are currently recuperating in hospitals. A total of 2,463 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours.
The Capital also added 41 deaths to the toll, taking total fatalities from the virus here to 3,487. As per the official bulletin, 9,943 patients are recovering in home isolation. and 22,528 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, of which 6,564 were RT-PCR tests and 15,964 were rapid antigen tests.
The number of containment zones in the Capital stood at 659. Last week, the number of containment zones increased by more than 150 after the city government decided to break existing hotspots into smaller clusters for better surveillance.
Meanwhile, with the Delhi government, banking on plasma therapy to reduce the COVID-19 death rate announced that the state-run Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital is soon going to launch a plasma bank, making it the third such facility in the national Capital. Binay Bhushan, the nodal officer of GTB Hospital, said the largest medical facility in East Delhi has got the required equipment, know-how and staff to start the plasma bank. "The hospital has already got a blood bank which caters to the demand in the East Delhi region. This facility can be used to collect and store plasma," Bhushan said.
Last week, the hospital said it has made all arrangements, including procuring an apheresis machine, to provide plasma therapy to COVID-19 patients who need it. Bhushan said the competent authority has allowed the hospital to start collecting plasma from recovered patients.
"We have prepared a list of COVID-19 patients who were treated at the hospital and have fully recovered. They have expressed willingness to donate plasma," he said.
