4,308 new cases as ICU beds in pvt hosps filling up fast
New Delhi: Keeping with the recent surge in cases, Delhi on Thursday reported its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases with the health department here detecting 4,308 new infections, taking the Capital's tally to 2,05,482, officials said, adding that the death toll from the virus had climbed to 4,666 with 28 new deaths.
This is the second consecutive day when the city reported its highest daily surge in cases. On Wednesday, Delhi reported a little over 4,000 cases and before that the highest single-day spike was of 3,947 cases on June 23. Moreover, the city also broke its testing record for the second consecutive day, clocking 58,340 tests conducted in 24 hours, of which 9,004 were RT-PCR tests and 49,336 were rapid antigen tests.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday urged people to be cautious and responsible while celebrating the upcoming festival season. "Many festivals are approaching in the coming months. While the COVID-19 pandemic is under control in Delhi, it is important to have preventive measures in place to contain the spread of COVID-19 at religious places of worship," he said.
The Navratri festival that involves temple visits and fasts for nine days will begin from October 17. It will culminate with Vijaya Dashmi or Dussehra on October 25. The festival of Diwali will be celebrated in the month of November.
"I would like to appeal to the general public as well as the organisations managing religious places to adhere to all the preventive measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the religious places during the upcoming festival season," the chief minister said in his appeal.
According to the latest health bulletin, the number of active cases in the city has increased to 25,416, of which 13,518 are in home isolation. While hospital beds are being fast occupied, the Delhi Corona App showed private hospital ICU beds filling fast. The health department said that on Thursday evening, there were over 8,400 vacant COVID-19 beds in Delhi.
Data shows that in private hospitals like Max Smart in Saket, Batra Hospital, Holy Family, Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh, Indraprastha Apollo, Fortis Vasant Kunj, BL Kapur, Fortis, Shalimar Bagh, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, there are no ICU beds with ventilators available.
"Visitors and workers at all religious places must observe respiratory safety etiquette to reduce the risk of COVID-19 at all times. All religious places will also be required to comply with the preventive measures inside their premises," the
CM said.
The Delhi government added that 2,637 patients had recovered from the contagious disease in the last 24 hours, taking total recoveries here to 1,75,400.
The Delhi government added that 2,637 patients had recovered from the contagious disease in the last 24 hours, taking total recoveries here to 1,75,400. Further, containment zones in the Capital have now increased to 1,272.
