Urgency of crisis demands quick action
Returning from a month-long holiday in the US, I was immediately struck by the urgency of the pollution crisis as I landed in Delhi, past midnight this week.
The number of fresh Covid-19 cases in the national capital nearly doubled to 10,665 on Wednesday from 5,481 on Tuesday with eight deaths taken into account during the last 24 hours.
The sample tests conducted numbered 89,742, according to the Delhi government’s latest health bulletin.
With the surge in the virus infections, the positivity rate also jumped to 11.88 per cent from 8.37 per cent yesterday, sending alarm signals across the city.
Advertisement
With the latest eight deaths due to Covid-19, the cumulative count of such fatalities rose to 25,121. The number of loss of lives today was the maximum this month. Such casualties are being reported every day since January 1 — three deaths on January 4 and one on each of the other days this month.
There were as many as 11,551 patients getting treatment as home isolation cases and the count of those considered active cases was 23,307.
There were, however, only 782 patients who remained admitted to hospitals and 9,692 hospital beds meant for coronavirus patients were found vacant.
Of the hospitalised patients, 140 were on oxygen support and 22 cases, considered severe, were put on the ventilator.
The health bulletin informed that 1,98,213 people were jabbed during the past 24 hours and 1,08,147 of them were those who were administered their first vaccine dose. The cumulative count of fully vaccinated people was 1,13,88,445. The cumulative number of those who got their first vaccine dose so far was 1,54,67,600.
Advertisement
