Delhi: 40 deaths as infection surge continues

There have been 133 deaths since January 1. In comparison, there were only nine deaths reported in December, seven in November, four in October, and five in September.

So far, 25,240 people have died of the infection in Delhi since the pandemic began.

The deaths, however, are fewer than those recorded during the delta-driven wave in April-May last year. There were over 300 deaths due to the infection reported each day at the time when the number of cases was over 20,000.

City doctors have also said that a majority of deaths reported this time are in patients seeking treatment for other conditions like cancers and kidney diseases who incidentally tested positive for Covid.

The positivity rate — the proportion of total samples that turn positive — increased to 26.22% on Wednesday, meaning more than one in four persons who get tested for the infection have it.

The positivity rate has increased from less than 1% to more than 26% in just 15 days. It took 29 days for a similar increase during the delta-driven wave, the data shows.

1,05,102 tests were conducted, of which 81% were conducted using the more accurate molecular methods like RT-PCR, CBNAAT, or TrueNat. The 85,349 molecular diagnostic tests conducted on Tuesday, as reported a day later in Wednesday’s bulletin, is the highest number of such tests ever conducted in the city.

The Indian Express had earlier had reported that an increase in the number of private labs and capacity at government labs helped the government scale-up testing. Of the 87,445 persons with Covid at the moment, as per the bulletin, 2,363 are in hospitals. There are 91 patients on ventilator support and 648 on oxygen support.