Declining trend: Delhi expected to report 4,000 to 5,000 fewer Covid cases on Monday

“Yesterday was Sunday, so that could also be a factor but the cases are going to be fewer today following the declining trend. There will be nearly 13,000 to 14,000 cases reported today, 4,000 to 5,000 cases fewer than yesterday,” Jain said in an online briefing, adding that Delhi might have crossed the peak of the current wave.

“The cases are definitely reducing for four days now and the advance indicator for the peak was that the hospitalisations were not going up.” The minister said that if the trend continued, outpatient services will be restarted in two of its biggest hospitals.

“The OPDs were suspended only in LNJP and GTB (hospitals) because we had planned to scale it up to complete Covid-19 hospitals. Both the hospitals currently have 750 beds for Covid-19 patients and it is not being used. We will see for a few days and revert back if the downward trend continues,” Jain said.

With the vaccination drive having completed one year, the minister also provided Delhi’s immunisation data. The Covid vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 last year, starting with healthcare workers, followed by frontline workers, and the elderly and those with co-morbidities, before finally being opened to all adults. The drive for children between the ages of 15 and 17 began on January 3 this year, while those in the first three categories became eligible for a third, “precautionary dose” from January 10 this year.

So far, 100 per cent of Delhi’s population has received the first dose of the vaccine and 80 per cent has received both doses, the minister said. Over 1.28 lakh precautionary doses have also been administered to 35,000 people over the age of 60 with co-morbidities, 60,000 frontline workers and 32,000 healthcare workers in Delhi, according to the minister.