1,056 fresh cases in Delhi as COVID count climbs to 1.32 lakh; no fatality at LNJP on Monday

New Delhi, July 28

A day after reporting a noteworthy dip in daily coronavirus cases, the national capital added 1,056 new COVID-19 patients, authorities said on Tuesday while not a single death was reported for the first time in two months at the LNJP hospital, a dedicated COVID-19 facility under the city government.

The total number of coronavirus cases climbed to 1,32,275. With 28 fatalities, the death toll stood at 3,881, the health bulletin issued on Tuesday said.

According to Monday’s health bulletin, 613 fresh cases were reported, lowest in the last two months. However, only 11,506 tests were conducted. A day later, the tests went up to 18,544 while the fresh cases rose to 1,056.         

The recovery rate stands at 88.83 per cent while the positivity rate was 5.69 per cent. The national recovery rate stands at 64 per cent.

There are 715 containment zones in the city.

In a related development, the LNJP Hospital here did not report any death due to the disease on Monday, for the first time in a couple of months.

The 2,000-bed hospital’s medical director attributed the feat to “extensive ICU care, plasma bank facility, top healthcare facilities and dedication of doctors and other healthcare workers”.

Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced, “No death in our biggest COVID hospital LNJP yesterday.”       

At least one death due to COVID-19 was recorded daily in the past couple of months, but “yesterday no fatality happened at LNJP”, Medical Director Suresh Kumar said.

Last month, the hospital came under fire over alleged mismanagement in handling the coronavirus situation. A team of the National Humans Rights Commission, led by its member Jyotika Kalra, had also visited the hospital in the second week of June for an on-spot inspection of the facility in the wake of the allegations.

Till Tuesday evening about 389 of the hospital’s 2,000 beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients, of whom 88 were in ICU and two on ventilators, Kumar said.

Meanwhile, with the incidence of coronavirus in the national capital appearing to show a declining trend and many beds remaining empty, several private hospitals are citing mounting losses to urge the Delhi government to reconvert some COVID-19 facilities and allow more non-COVID services.               

According to the Delhi Corona app, only 2,783 beds of the 15,438 dedicated beds for coronavirus patients across private and government hospitals in the national capital are occupied.

Many hospitals said more than half their dedicated COVID-19 beds are vacant as a large number of coronavirus positive patients are under home isolation.

In a related development, the Delhi High Court has sought response from the AAP government on a plea challenging a provision which empowers police officers of sub-inspector rank or above to impose fines on anyone violating COVID-19 regulations.

A Bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued notice to the Delhi Government seeking its stand on the plea by a lawyer, who has contended that imposing a fine amount or handing down a punishment can only be done by a judge, not a police officer.

Under the Delhi Epidemic Diseases (Management of COVID-19) Regulations of 2020, an authorised person is empowered to impose a fine of Rs 500 for the first time and a further fine of Rs 1,000 for repeated violation of quarantine rules—not maintaining social distancing, not wearing masks, spitting in public places and consumption of tobacco products in public places.

The petition has sought quashing of the provision in the regulations which empowers police officers to impose fines for these violations. PTI

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