COVID-19 death toll in Delhi rises to 129; 438 fresh cases take tally to 9,333

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 16

With 438 fresh COVID-19 cases reported in New Delhi on Saturday, the tally of total cases now stands at 9,333.

Of the total cases, 5,278 are active cases and as many as 3,926 patients have been recovered. Six people have reportedly died due to the deadly virus in the past 24 hours as per the official health bulletin of the Delhi government.

New Delhi recorded its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Thursday with 472 new cases.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Satyendra Jain held a meeting to review the COVID-19 status. An empowered group-meeting was also held to check the preparedness and implementation of COVID-19 safety measures.

Of the total number of deceased patients, 62 were aged 60 and above, accounting for over 50 per cent of the fatalities here.

Thirty-five of them were aged between 50-59 years and 26 were less than 50 years, the bulletin said.

Facing criticism for “under reporting” COVID-19 deaths, the Delhi government, on Sunday, issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) for hospitals and other health facilities in the city on reporting fatalities due to COVID-19.

Meanwhile, two more private hospitals have been declared as COVID hospitals for admitting positive or suspected cases of coronavirus infection on a payment basis.

The two hospitals are Batra Hospital and Research Centre, Tughlakabad (50 isolation beds), and Cygnus Orthocare Hospital, Safdarjung Development Area (40 isolation beds), according to an order issued on Saturday by the Delhi Health Department.

A total of 1,30,845 COVID-19 tests have been conducted to date.

The total number of COVID-19 patients under home isolation stands at 1,983, the bulletin said.

According to the Delhi Health Department bulletin, of the total 9,333 cases recorded so far, at least 1,758 were admitted at various hospitals, namely LNJP Hospital, RML Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) and the AIIMS Jhajjhar, adding 155 of them were in the ICU and 26 on ventilators.

The number of containment zones in Delhi has been reduced to 76. — With inputs from PTI