From June 24 to July 8, a total of 691 people died due to coronavirus in Delhi (Representational)
There have been no deaths in home quarantine this month and daily fatalities in the national capital also showed a sharp decline, a Delhi government study has found. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had directed the health department to conduct a study on COVID-19 deaths in the last two weeks to find out steps that could be taken to reduce fatalities.
From June 24 to July 8, a total of 691 people died due to coronavirus in Delhi, the study found. Daily deaths have reduced; from 101 daily deaths, the average is now 46 fatalities in a day, marking a significant improvement, the study found.
The Delhi government, in a release, said the dip in home quarantine deaths can be attributed to the chief minister's decision to distribute oximeters to all patients under home isolation.
Delhi's overall death rate has come down to 3.02 per cent from 3.64 per cent in June, the study said. However, daily average has come down to roughly 2.5 per cent with average daily number of deaths being less than 50 and daily number of fresh cases being around 2,000 in the last fortnight.
Arvind Kejriwal in a review meeting on Friday discussed measures that need to be taken to further reduce mortality.
According to a central government''s committee, 45 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in India occur during the first 48 hours. In Delhi, this has come down to only 15 per cent, the government statement said.
A number of steps have been taken by the Delhi government to lower COVID-19 deaths which have contributed to the reduction in number of fatalities, it said.
The interventions at six crucial points - enhanced testing, home isolation of asymptomatic and mild symptom patients, faster ambulance service, quick hospital admission, easy hospital bed availability and enhanced ICU capacity - have started showing results, it added.
Delhi has recorded over 1,09,000 cases so far with over 3,300 deaths. There have been 42 deaths in the last 24 hours, authorities said. Over 84,000 people have recovered in the national capital and there are over 21,000 active cases.
Delhi recorded 2,089 novel coronavirus cases on Friday. The city, however, has strengthened its recovery rate to more than 77 per cent, which means that 3 out every 4 patients have recovered.
The capital is the third worst-hit state in India behind Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. India's COVID-19 tally touched 8,20,916 with the highest single-day increase of 27,114, data from the Union Health Ministry shows.