Delhi hospital records no COVID-19 death on 2 days in a week

New Delhi: LNJP Hospital, the Delhi government’s biggest COVID-19 treatment facility, did not report any death due to the disease on two days in a week, signalling improvement in the pandemic situation.

The 2,000-bed hospital’s medical director Suresh Kumar said on Tuesday the number of people on ventilator at the facility has come down by nearly 25 per cent, compared to the figure a month ago.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on July 28 that LNJP Hospital had not reported any death on July 27, a feat, doctors said, recorded for the first time in the last couple of months.

“After that day, on two more days, our hospital saw no death from COVID-19…. It is definitely a good sign for all of us who are fighting this situation,” Kumar told PTI.

Delhi recorded 805 fresh coronavirus cases on Monday, taking the tally in the city to over 1.38 lakh, while the death toll from the disease climbed to 4,021, authorities said.

Seventeen new fatalities were recorded, according to the Delhi health department bulletin released on Monday.

The active cases tally stood at 10,207, down from 10,356, on Sunday.

The positivity rate on Monday stood at 7.9 per cent while the recovery rate was over 89 per cent, according to the data shared in the bulletin.

Delhi had in June recorded a huge surge in cases and a large number of deaths, which started to come down in the month of July.

Kumar said, at present 320 patients are admitted at the LNJP Hospital, out of whom 259 are confirmed cases and the rest in suspected category.

“Of the positive cases, 86 are in ICU while four are on ventilators with intubation (invasive),” he said.

In invasive cases of ventilator support, a patient is intubated directly into his lungs and practically no movement on part of the patient. In non-invasive case, there is no intubation, the doctor said.

How long a person needs to be kept on ventilator support depends on multiple factors, including ages, sex and co-morbid conditions, if any.

The Kejriwal government has claimed that a multi-pronged strategy of aggressive testing, home isolation policy, and public engagement were the attributing factors in improvement of COVID-19 situation in Delhi.

Kumar attributed multiple days of “zero death” from COVID-19 to “extensive ICU care, plasma bank facility, top heathcare facilities and dedication of doctors and other heathcare workers”.