Coronavirus: Three-fourth of COVID-19 cases in Delhi reported in May alone

Three out of every four COVID-19 cases in Delhi were reported in the first 25 days of May with Monday adding 635 fresh patients that took the total number of cases over the 14,000-mark.

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Fifteen more deaths were added to the toll but the official medical bulletin did not make it clear whether these happened in the past 24 hours. The death toll has now risen to 276, including 68 reported in the last three days.

An analysis of medical bulletins showed that May alone recorded 10,534 cases so far, which is 74.95% of the total cases. Since the lockdown 4.0 was put in place on May 18, there were 4,298 cases and this accounted for 40.8% of the cases reported this month alone.

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Among the cases is a person working in the office of Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain. He tested positive on Sunday and has been quarantined while the office of the Minister has been sanitised. Earlier, a driver working for the Health and Family Welfare Department at the Delhi Secretariat too had tested positive for COVID-19.

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While on Sunday 508 cases were reported, May 22 reported 660 cases, the biggest spike in a single day. Since May 19, Delhi has been reporting more than 500 cases and it has been rising since then. However, on Saturday, the numbers declined slightly. On May 18, there were 299 cases while May 19 had reported 500 cases, May 20 with 534 cases and May 21 with 571 cases. On May 23, the numbers declined to 591.

The medical bulletin said 231 people have been discharged in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 6,771. However, there are 7,006 people still under treatment, including 3,421 in home isolation. Delhi has so far conducted tests on 1.74 lakh samples, including 4,696 fresh samples.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the spike in cases was nothing to worry about as the administration was expecting a rise in cases following substantial relaxations in lockdown from May 18.

"The situation is under control. There is nothing to worry. I will be worried if the number of deaths increases, which is not happening. I will be worried if the number of serious cases increases as it would collapse the hospital system. Most of the cases are with mild symptoms," Kejriwal said in a digital address.

He said the Delhi government has now asked 117 private hospitals in the capital to earmark 20% of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients from Monday and this would add around 2,000 hospital beds to the existing ones.

Around 5,500 hospital beds, including the new additions from the private sector, are vacant in the capital and there were no worries about accommodating people in hospitals, he said.