Coronavirus Outbreak: COVID-19 death toll in Delhi mounts to 176; cases cross 11,000-mark

The coronavirus death toll in Delhi has climbed to 176, while 534 fresh cases of COVID-19 infection reported on Wednesday, the highest single-day spike here, took the total in the city over the 11,000-mark, authorities said. The previous highest spike in fresh cases – 500 – was recorded on 19 May. [caption id=“attachment_8364561” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption] In a bulletin issued on Wednesday, the Delhi health department said, the death toll from coronavirus infection has risen to 176, and the total number of cases has mounted to 11,088. It, however, added the cumulative death figures refers to fatalities where primary cause of death was found to be COVID-19, as per the report of the Death Audit Committee on the basis of case sheets received from various hospitals. On Tuesday, the the total number of cases stood at 10,554, including 166 deaths. With 534 fresh cases, the total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi has climbed to 11,088. Meanwhile, amid rising coronavirus cases and gradual fall in number of containment zones in the national capital, the Delhi health department has directed all district magistrates to create such zones in their areas of jurisdiction as per the existing guidelines. Of the total number of deceased patients, 92 were aged 60 years and above, accounting for over 52 per cent of the fatalities here. Forty-seven of them were aged between 50-59 years and 37 were less than 50 years, the bulletin said. Facing criticism for “under reporting” COVID-19 deaths, the Delhi government had earlier issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) for hospitals and other health facilities in the city on reporting fatalities due to coronavirus. An order has also been issued regarding mandatory reporting of all deaths of COVID-19 positive person at any healthcare facility in Delhi in accordance with SOPs issued earlier. An order has also been issued on designating All India Institute of Ayurveda at Sarita Vihar, as an additional COVID Care Centre, authorities said. As many as 5,192 patients have recovered, discharged or migrated so far while there are 5,720 active cases, the Delhi health department said. A total of 1,50,282 COVID-19 tests have been conducted till date, it said. Total number of COVID-19 positive patients under home isolation stands at 2358, it said. According to the Delhi Health Department bulletin, out of the total 11,088 cases recorded so far, at least 1,722 are admitted at various hospitals like LNJP Hospital, RML Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) and AIIMS Jhajjhar, adding 157 of them are in ICU and 23 on ventilators. The number of containment zones in Delhi has been reduced to 69.