With 2,726 new COVID-19 cases being reported in the Capital in the past 24 hours, the total cases crossed the 3 lakh mark on Thursday, according to a health bulletin released by the Delhi government.
According to the bulletin, 37 more deaths have been reported, taking the total number of deaths to 5,653. Of the total 3,00,833 cases, 2,72,948, people have recovered till now and there are 22,232 active cases.
Both active cases and people under home isolation, which have been decreasing for almost a week, increased slightly on Thursday.
The government has also decided to end the system of putting up posters outside houses of people under home quarantine with their names and other details and has directed district officials to remove all such posters, according to officials. “District officials have been directed not to put up posters anymore and also remove the ones which are currently there,” a Delhi government official said.
Out of the total 15,833 beds available for COVID-19 treatment in the city, 66.7% were vacant, as per government data.
But 58.38% of the ICU beds with ventilators have been occupied and 56.9% of the ICU beds without ventilators are full.
The positivity rate (percentage of people testing positive for every 100 tests done) was 5.1% -- which is lower than September. The overall positivity rate till now is 8.6%.
The number of containment zones in the city on Thursday was 2,734.
The official said, “Due to stigma connected with the disease and posters outside their houses, people are not coming forward to get tested for the virus, even when they have symptoms. They go to hospitals only when they become severe and it leads to complications. By not putting up posters, we are trying to encourage more people to get tested for the virus and bring them into the government’s monitoring system.”
The Delhi government did not officially confirm the development.