Health worker gets ready with PPE kit before beginning duty at a Covid center attached with LNJP Hospital in New Delhi on Friday.
Delhi Coronavirus (Covid-19) India News Live Updates: The national capital recorded 2,520 fresh coronavirus cases on Friday, taking the tally in the city to over 92,000, while the death toll from the disease mounted to 2,923. After an increase in testing in the month of June, Delhi has conducted 5,96,695 tests so far. The number of fresh cases in the national capital in the last five days has not shown any particular trend.
The health department in their revised guidelines for home isolation on Friday said Covid patients suffering from immunity-targeting health conditions like cancer, HIV and others were not eligible for home isolation. The bulletin also said psychiatrists working in hospitals and medical institutions under the Delhi Health department would be deployed at Covid hospitals and facilities to provide tele-consultancy to patients.
Calling the situation “chaotic”, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said donating plasma could be a chance to save someone’s life as he launched country’s first plasma bank Thursday. Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with the chief ministers of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to discuss the Covid situation in Delhi and its adjoining areas on the same day.
India reported its highest single day spike of 22,771 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours along with 442 fatalities, the Union Health Ministry said Saturday. Over 18,600 people have succumbed to the disease till now.
A donor at Delhi's plasma bank. (Express Photo: Tashi Tobgyal)
Commending the work done by BJP workers across the country during lockdown, BJP President JP Nadda said, "over 8 lakh BJP workers distributed nearly 22 crore food packets, 5 crores 'Modi ration kits' and more than 5 crore face covers during the lockdown period. Our workers encouraged about 58 lakh people to contribute to 'PM CARES Fund.'"
Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins addressing BJP workers at 'Seva he Sanghatan'
More than 45 per cent of the over 5.96 lakh COVID-19 tests in Delhi were conducted in the last 16 days, after the government started testing through the rapid-antigen methodology in and around containment zones of the national capital. Rapid-antigen tests started in the city on June 18. Since then a total of 2,75,396 tests through the RT-PCR (reverse transcription?polymerase chain reaction) and rapid-antigen methods have been conducted in Delhi with around 17,000 tests per day. Of this, around 1.5 lakh people have been tested through rapid-antigen kits, according to the Delhi government's health bulletins.
Till June 18, health authorities conducted 3,21,302 tests for the disease using the 'expensive but gold standard' RT-PCR method. The number of tests per day has also seen an around four-fold increase from 4,190 tests per day in the first week of June to 15,863 tests per day in the last week of the month. On Friday alone, more than 24,000 tests -- 10,577 RT-PCR tests and 13,588 rapid-antigen tests -- were conducted in the city, a massive jump from 6,538 tests conducted a month ago on June 3.
In the last one month, from June 3 to July 3, as many as 3.66 lakh people have been tested for COVID-19, which is 12,218 tests daily. So far, 5,96,698 tests have been conducted through RT-PCR and the rapid-antigen methods. On Friday, the government expanded rapid-antigen testing, earlier limited to containment zones, to other areas in all 11 districts of the national capital. Now, state-run and private hospitals in the capital have also begun testing for COVID-19 using this method following the nod of the government.
As Delhi's Fatehpuri mosque is allowed to reopen, Mufti Mukarram Ahmed, the mosque's Shahi Imam urged visitors to take precautionary measures such as wearing masks and using disinfectants and emphasised to not forget the ongoing battle against the pandemic.
Delhi's Jama Masjid will reopen for the public today with visitors allowed to visit from 9 am to 10 pm and social distancing will be followed,Syed Ahmed Bukhari, Shahi Imam of the mosque said, ANI reported.
The number of coronavirus cases in Delhi, after a spike in the 3rd week of June have slowed down considerably. Even though the capital is reporting 2,000 new cases its growth rate has fallen below 3%. Delhi added more than 17,000 new cases in the last one week
The coronavirus lockdown from 25 March to 8 June has resulted in a significant reduction of air pollution levels in the national capital and other cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore, an analysis of the CPCB Air Quality Index data has noted.
Delhi achieved 95% target National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) target set by the Centre, as per the analysis carried out jointly by CarbonCopy and Respirer Living Sciences. Delhi’s PM 2.5 average during the lockdown was 49. It was 101.3 in 2017, 121 in 2018 and 109.2 in 2019.
After Bharat Biotech's Covaxine, Zydus Cadila, an Ahmedabad headquartered pharma firm expects to complete the first two phases of human clinical trials for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, ‘ZyCov-D’, in the next three months, according to the chairman of the firm.
A junior resident doctor at Delhi's Maulana Azad Institute for Dental Sciences (MAIDS) was tested covid-19 negative twice before he passed away following complaints of chest congestion and breathlessness on Thursday.Read more here
Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Raghav Chadha Friday accused the centre for causing unnecessary confusion in the national capital by first scrapping its home isolation guidelines, reinstating it and then releasing nation-wide guidelines that were similar to those that were being followed in Delhi.
The guidelines had become a flashpoint between the Delhi government and the L-G last month, when the latter had passed an order that everyone who tests positive would have to spend at least five days in institutional quarantine.
In India's highest single day spike so far, 22,771 people tested positive in the last 24 hours taking the total tally to 6,48,315 on Saturday with the death toll rising to 18,655 with 442 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data.The number of recovered patients are on a steady rise and around " 60.80 per cent of patients have recovered so far," an official said.
At least 600 medical personnel comprising doctors, nurses and paramedical staff from the tri-services have been mobilised to treat coronavirus in Delhi's 1,000 bed dedicated Covid-19 hospital near Indira Gandhi International Airport that will become functional Monday. The hospital will be managed by teams from the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS), which have been specially trained in Covid-19 care.
This comes after the Chief of Defense Staff, General Bipin Rawat directed General Armed Forces Medical Services Lt Gen Anup Banerji to align efforts of the AFMS towards caring for the sudden surge in cases.(Read the full story here)
Welcome to our live blog: Delhi's caseload stands at 94,695 along with 2,923 fatalities as of Friday evening as the department issued revised guidelines for home isolation.