Delhi past peak of second Covid wave & situation controlled to large extent: CM

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the national capital is past the peak of the second wave of coronavirus and the situation has been controlled to a large extent. Kejriwal said the Delhi government increased the testing exponentially to detect the infection.

"Delhi hit the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 on September 17 when 4,500 cases were reported across the city. The situation has been controlled to a large extent," he said. "I hope the second wave will slowly pass," Kejriwal said.

Testing in Delhi hit the 60,000 a day mark in September compared to 20,000 tests per day in August. The chief minister also said that 10,000 beds are now unoccupied in hospitals. At one point, 7,200 beds were occupied.

According to Delhi government data, 1,947 new cases on Monday increased the cumulative count to 2,92,560 cases, while 32 fatalities took the number of deaths to 5,542. Forty-eight deaths were reported on September 29, the highest in a day since July 16, when the city reported 58 deaths. On Monday, the case positivity rate was 5.47 per cent, while the cumulative positivity rate was 8.82 per cent.

Meanwhile, over 480 COVID-19 patients have been administered convalescent plasma therapy at the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital over the last few months, officials said on Tuesday.

LNJP Hospital and RGSSH are dedicated coronavirus facilities. Plasma therapy was started at the LNJP Hospital, the largest under the Delhi government, in June. Later, Delhi's second plasma bank was set up at the hospital in July. The national Capital's first plasma bank was inaugurated at the state-run Institute of Liver and Biliary Science (ILBS) on July 2 by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The LNJP Hospital has 2,000 beds, of which 432 were occupied as on Monday. Of these, 258 patients are in the ICU, said Suresh Kumar, medical director of the hospital. "Till a couple of days ago, about 286 patients had received plasma therapy. Males outnumber females, and mostly people aged above 60 need it," he said. Kumar said only serious patients whose condition is deteriorating are administered this therapy.

Meanwhile, The national capital recorded 39 COVID-19 fatalities on Tuesday, pushing the toll to 5,581, while 2,676 fresh cases took the tally over 2.95 lakh, authorities said. These fresh cases came out of the 53,591 tests conducted the previous day. Thirty-nine new fatalities have been recorded, taking the death toll to 5,581,according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department. The number of containment zones in Delhi dropped to 2,697 from 2,707 on Monday. The active cases tally on Tuesday stood at 22,720. The bulletin said the total number of cases has climbed to 2,95,236. The positivity rate on Tuesday stood at 4.99 per cent while the recovery rate has crossed 90 per cent.