NEW DELHI:  The coronavirus fatality count in the national capital crossed the 4,000-mark on Sunday, however, the number of deaths per day owing to novel coronavirus has been slowly going down. As per the state government’s bulletin, 15 deaths were recorded on Sunday and the cumulative tally of deaths stood at 4,004. “Deaths in Delhi came down to 15. Less than 1,000 fresh cases registered.

Let us all keep working hard to ensure that the downward trend continues (sic),” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Twitter on Sunday. Last week, the Delhi government had claimed that the death rates have gone down after a detailed analysis of deaths due to Covid-19 in Delhi carried out by the Health Department for the period June 1-12 June and July 1-12 July revealed a 44 per cent decline in deaths – from 1,089 between 1-12 June to 605 between July 1-12.

The analysis further revealed that deaths in the Delhi government run Covid hospitals saw a 58 percent reduction from early June to July – from 361 deaths to 154 deaths. Earlier, there had been huge controversy over the number of fatalities in the city after the MCDs had claimed that the total number of Covid fatalities were much higher than that claimed by the Delhi government in its daily health bulletin. The state govenrment had also formed an audit committee to ensure that the death toll is maintained correctly with daily updates.

The state even saw a jump of as many as 400 deaths added in the fatality count on a single day which was mainly due to backlog by certain hospitals. On July 26, the national capital had recorded 21 fatalities due to the deadly virus, the previous lowest death count in the national capital since July 1. On July 27, the city recorded 26 deaths, 28 fatalities on July 28, 25 on July 29, 25 on July 30 and 27 on July 31. On August 1, 26 people succumbed to the disease. The national capital had recorded its first coronavirus fatality back in March 13. Experts now believe that the city has now crossed its peak.