Delhi’s doubling rate climbs to 101.5 days

Delhi's doubling rate climbs to 101.5 days

NEW DELHI: The efforts made by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to deal with the Covid-19 situation in Delhi are showing successful results as Delhi’s position has become much better than the rest of the country, the city government said on Thursday.

“At present, the doubling rate of corona in Delhi has gone up to 101.5 days, as compared to the rest of the country which stands at 28.8 days. Moreover, the mortality rate in Delhi has also considerably decreased,” the Delhi government added.

The doubling rate in the case of coronavirus is defined as the number of days it takes for the count of cases to double. On July 1, the doubling rate of corona cases in Delhi was the same as the rest of India at 20 days.

The government added, “Since then, the doubling rate of Delhi has been steadily rising. It was 58 days on July 17, around 90 days on August 1, and has currently increased to 101.5 days. In comparison, for the rest of India, the doubling rate has remained between 20 and 27 days since July 1.”

For the month of August so far, the mortality rate in Delhi is 1.4 percent, while the country has a mortality rate of 1.92 percent.

In a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) held on Wednesday, the Health Department of the Delhi government presented fresh data regarding the situation of coronavirus in Delhi. 

“The figures are not only strengthening the case for Delhi Model’s success in defeating corona but also bring relief to the residents of Delhi.” To prevent new cases and to reduce deaths due to COVID, Kejriwal has been directing all the concerned departments, including the health department, to take necessary steps. This is the result that compared to June, when there was panic in Delhi over COVID, the situation is showing a lot of improvement today.

The case fatality rate in Delhi for the month of August has improved substantially to 1.4 percent whereas, for the rest of India, the case fatality rate is 1.92 percent. While reiterating that the coronavirus situation is improving in Delhi, Kejriwal has maintained that the main aim of the authorities and the Delhi government is to save as many lives as possible. For this, many improvements have been made inside the hospitals such as ramping up the infrastructure, increasing ICU beds and wards, and supplying oxygen concentrators to patients recovering in hospitals as well as home isolation.

“On June 20, the recovery rate of Delhi and the rest of India was similar at 55.2 percent. Since then, the recovery rate of Delhi has been consistently higher than the rest of India. Today, the recovery rate in Delhi is 90.2 percent as compared to 72.5 percent recovery rate for the rest of India.”

Out of a total of 1,57,354 cases in Delhi, 1,41,826 patients have recovered, which shows a significant improvement in the corona situation in Delhi. The success of the Delhi Model is also seen in the sharp decrease in the test positivity rate over the last two months.

On June 18, the test positivity rate in Delhi was 24.59 percent, which reduced substantially to 5.25 percent by August 16.

Notably, the positivity rate has dropped for both RT-PCR tests and Rapid Antigen Tests. On June 18, 9088 RT-PCR tests were conducted of which 2804 positives emerged – a positivity rate of 30.85 percent. In comparison, on August 16, 4106 RT-PCR tests were conducted of which 434 positives emerged – a positivity rate of 10.57 percent.

The city government said, “Similarly, on 18 June, 3316 Rapid tests were conducted in Delhi of which 247 positives emerged – a positivity rate of 7.42 percent. In comparison, on 16 August, 10,882 Rapid tests were conducted in Delhi of which 353 positives emerged – a positivity rate of 3.24 percent.”