A health worker takes a swab sample for COVID-19 testing at a government school in New Delhi. Delhi Coronavirus, Weather Today Live Updates: Delhi Thursday recorded 22 deaths due to the novel coronavirus, highest single-day rise since August 7 when the city recorded 23 fatalities after progressing into a downward trend. The doubling rate of Covid-19 has gone up to over 100 days, the Delhi government said as it revealed that 29.1 per cent people who took part in the latest sero-prevalence survey have anti-bodies against COVID-19.
According to the latest figures, the national capital recorded 1,215 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 1.57 lakh, while the death toll from the disease mounted to 4,257. In a statement, the Delhi government credited Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘Delhi model’ of tackling COVID-19. “Delhi’s position is much better than the rest of the country, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department’s regional forecasting center has predicted moderate rains till Friday morning. Thereafter, the intensity will decrease and the city will witness on and off light rain. Another spell of moderate rain will begin from August 25. Incessant rains this week lashed the national capital and neighbouring areas, triggering long traffic snarls, uprooting trees and causing damage to property in many areas. The Aya Nagar weather station recorded 122.8 mm between 8.30 am on Wednesday and 8.30 am on Thursday, which was 11 times the normal rainfall.
Cariappa Marg in New Delhi waterlogged after heavy rains (Express Photo: Tashi Tobgyal)
DMRC chief Mangu Singh Thursday carried out an inspection at the Rajiv Chowk Metro station to check the functioning of the operational systems and maintenance activities, officials said. The inspection comes amid expectations of resumption in the Metro rail services with proper safety measures. However, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials described it as a "routine inspection". "MD-DMRC Dr Mangu Singh inspected the Rajiv Chowk metro station today. The routine inspection was part of checking the effective functioning of various operational systems and maintenance activities," the DMRC tweeted.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday met the family members of a sanitation worker who recently died of COVID-19, and handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore as an ex-gratia to them. Talking to reporters during his visit in North Delhi's Majnu Ka Tilla area, Kejriwal said that sanitation worker Raju contracted the infection when he was on COVID-19 duty and died while serving the people of Delhi.
"We are proud of such 'corona warriors' who are sacrificing their lives while saving the citizens of Delhi," he said. The chief minister said that his government will provide all possible assistance to Raju's family.
With the daily growth rate continuing to slow down, the doubling time of novel Coronavirus cases in India has now dropped to 30 days. As on Thursday, there were 29.05 lakh confirmed cases in the country. The halfway stage was crossed on July 27, which means the present doubling has happened in 24 days. But the next doubling, at the current rate of growth, would happen only after 30 days, signalling a slowdown.
Doubling time is a function of the growth rate. Lower the growth, higher is the doubling time. It is one of the several metrics used to assess the pace at which the epidemic has been spreading in the population. At the start of the outbreak, in April and May, when the cases were rising rapidly, a doubling period of ten days was considered healthy for the stage of epidemic India was in at that time.
The ten-day doubling period was crossed in the first week of May, and after that there has been a steady elongation of this time.
In addition to measures like social distancing and wearing masks, an Indian-German team of scientists recommend controlling indoor humidity conditions to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19. The researchers, including those from CSIR National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi, said in order to contain the pandemic, it is extremely important to implement standards for indoor air humidity in rooms with many people, such as hospitals, open-plan offices, or public transport. In their review of studies, published in the journal Aerosol and Air Quality Research, the scientists specifically drew focus on relative humidity, which is a measure of water vapour in the air compared to the total saturation of vapour that can exist in the air at its current temperature.
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said the Covid-19 vaccine they are jointly developing is on track to be submitted for regulatory review as early as October, as they released additional data from an early-stage study.
The companies said the vaccine was well tolerated with mild to moderate fever in fewer than 20% of the participants. The companies are continuing to analyze data from the Phase 1 trials in the US and Germany, they said in a statement.
The confirmation of their October goal, first announced last month, helped lift S&P 500 futures briefly on Friday as part of a drumbeat of positive news on inoculation efforts that have the potential to end the threat of damaging lockdowns.
According to the IMD’s latest predictions, light to moderate intensity falls are expected to occur over Delhi, Roorkee, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Kaithal over the next two hours.
The second round of the serological survey in Delhi, the results of which were released on Thursday, showed that about 29 per cent of those surveyed had the presence of novel coronavirus-specific antibodies in them.
The first round of this exercise, conducted between the last week of June and first week of July, had detected antibodies in about 23 per cent of the volunteers. That means that in the one-month period between the first and second rounds, the disease spread to just about an additional six per cent of the population.
This would indicate a very significant slowdown in the spread of the disease in the national capital. Though a slowdown is evident from the drop in the reported number of cases as well, the results of the latest survey do throw up a surprise because of the extent of the slowdown that would be required to make this possible. Most of the movement restrictions in Delhi have now been lifted and people-to-people interaction has increased manifold from the time the first serological survey was conducted.
The Covid-19 tally in India rose to 2,905,823 on Friday after 68,898 fresh cases were registered within a single day. As many as 983 deaths were also recorded on Thursday, taking the total to 54,849, according to latest data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Welcome to our Delhi Coronavirus and Weather Live blog. Delhi Thursday recorded 22 deaths due to the novel coronavirus, highest single-day rise since August 7 when the city recorded 23 fatalities after progressing into a downward trend. Meanwhile, the IMD has predicted moderate rains till Friday morning. Thereafter, the intensity will decrease and the city will witness on and off light rain. Follow all the latest updates here