Coronavirus "Under Control" In Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal Cites Numbers

Delhi has managed to slow down the spread of coronavirus for now, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today, citing figures that fall short of predictions for June. In place of the predicted 60,000 active cases by the end of June, Delhi has only around 26,000, he said. The number of cases detected each day, has also gone down from last week -- around 2,500 a day instead of the close to 4,000.

With 87,000 cases, the national capital, which is the third worst-hit state in the country after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, is still short of the 1 lakh cases the experts had predicted at the beginning of last month.

Over the last 24 hours, 2,199 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Delhi, taking the total to 87,360. The number of fatalities has gone up to 2,742 with 62 more deaths reported in a single day. There are 26,270 active cases.

The daily hike in cases has seen a downward trend in the last one week.

Mr Kejriwal said testing, which has been increased, also indicates a slowdown of the virus.

"We have increased the number of tests. There is a good indication... Earlier around 31 out of 100 people whose samples were collected tested positive for Coronavirus. Today, 13 out of 100 people test positive," Mr Kejriwal said.

The recovery rate in Delhi has improved from 60 per cent to 66 per cent. The national recovery rate is 59 per cent. The death rate has remained around 3 per cent.

Testing has been increasing and has remained between 16,000 and 21,000 in the last week.

In the beginning of June, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said Delhi will have 1 lakh coronavirus cases by the end of the month and 5.5 lakh cases by the end of July. On basis of the estimate, the number of beds were increased, with public and private participation.

The Centre chipped in with 500 railway coaches which were converted into COVID-19 facilities.