New Delhi: As Delhi's COVID-19-count breached the 1,000-mark on Saturday, official data provided by the health department of the Delhi government shows that the healthcare system in the Capital is operating at 67.95 per cent of its capacity as it stands now. Interestingly, as Delhi prepared to ramp up testing earlier this month, it saw a sharp increase in the number of cases between April 3 and April 7; however, it also kept increasing the capacity of its healthcare system in tandem.
According to the state government's data, Delhi had 386 positive cases and a total of 809 people were admitted in various hospitals' COVID-19 wards as on April 3, when the Capital's healthcare system could accommodate 1,545 patients. However, both testing numbers and the number of positive cases spiked in the seven days since, along with which the healthcare system's capacity has also been increased by the concerned authorities.
As of April 11, Delhi had recorded a total of 1,069 COVID-19 cases, with 1,635 people hospitalised in eight government hospitals, including AIIMS Jhajjar and other private hospitals. By this point, the capacity of this healthcare system had been increased to accommodate up to 2,406 patients. Moreover, Delhi had tested over close to 12,000 samples with results of 464 pending, 10,218 negatives for COVID-19 and 1,069 positives.
With five more COVID-19 death reported on Saturday, the total death toll in the Capital went up to 19.
In the first week of April, Delhi also recorded its highest ever number of new cases per day more than once. On April 2, the Capital saw 141 new cases of COVID-19 and again on April 10, when it topped the earlier record by reporting 183 new cases. And while Delhi had tested only 3,273 samples from the first reported case in early March to April 3; since then it has tested over 8,400 samples.
Furthermore, as a result of increased testing, the rate of positivity has become more representative of the population in Delhi than before. At its current testing numbers, Delhi is testing over 500 people per million of its population — among the highest rate under this parameter in the country. At this testing rate, Delhi is currently showing 9.12 per cent of tested people are COVID-19 positive. This rate was unstable in the first week of April as the testing numbers were increased suddenly.
Besides this, SARI surveillance by ICMR scientists showed that Delhi also has the highest prevalence of COVID-19 among hospitalised SARI patients. This study is conducted to check for community transmission. It was observed that between February 15 and April 2, 277 SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Illness) patients in Delhi's government
hospitals were tested for COVID-19, of which 14 were positive - yielding a prevalence rate of 5.1 per cent.