The city hospitals have been witnessing a marginal increase in the number of admission of coronavirus patients over the last week due to people from outside Delhi seeking treatment, doctors said on August 13.
For our comprehensive coverage and latest updates on COVID-19 click here.
On August 13, out of 14,016 available beds, 3,322 were occupied which indicates a bed occupancy of 23.70 percent while the previous day it was 23.99 percent. On August 11, it was down to 23.40 percent while on August 10, it was 23.02 percent. Since the beginning of August, the national capital has seen a fluctuation in daily coronavirus cases, with August 8 recording 1,404 cases, the highest single-day count in nearly two weeks.
On August 1, 1,118 cases and 26 deaths due to the infection were reported, followed by 961 cases and 15 deaths on August 2; 805 cases and 17 deaths on August 3; 674 cases and 12 deaths on August 4; 1,076 cases and 11 deaths on August 5; 1, 299 cases and 15 deaths on August 6; 1,192 cases and 23 deaths on August 7 and 1,404 cases and 16 deaths on August 8. On August 9, 1,300 fresh cases and 13 fatalities were reported, followed by 707 fresh coronavirus cases on August 10 and 20 fatalities. On August 11, the national capital recorded 1,257 fresh coronavirus cases, and eight deaths, while the next day, 1,113 cases were reported along with 14 fatalities. On August 13, 956 fresh coronavirus cases and 14 deaths were reported.
The Delhi Health Minister has been reiterating that 33 percent of the patients coming to the city for treatment are from outside Delhi. Even doctors concurred with him. "We have seen a marginal increase in patients. Earlier, the daily admission was four to five but now sometimes it is five or six. The reason is that patients are coming from outside Delhi. We are situated near Uttar Pradesh so that could be the reason. "We are analysing the number of patients from the city and outside Delhi and quite a good number of patients are coming from outside Delhi," said Dr B L Sherwal, medical director of the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, a dedicated COVID-19 facility.
He also said testing has been increased which has also led to the increase in numbers. LNJP medical director Dr Suresh Kumar said, "We have seen an eight to 10 percent increase in hospital admissions over the last week. We have lots of patients coming in from all over NCR and even from other states like Punjab, Rajasthan and Bihar." According to Dr. Inder Kumar Kasturia, Consultant, Family Medicine, Aakash Healthcare, Dwarka, the increase in cases is also due to the unlock process and a sense of complacency creeping in among people. He said even other countries have witnessed similar instances after a strict lockdown.
Sharing numbers, he said, during the peak coronavirus time, they were seeing 30-35 patients in OPD which came down to 10, eight or nine but in the last 10 days, they are getting 15-20 patients and sometimes even 22. However, he said the surge is not continuous.
