India / No deaths in home isolation in 10 days, says Delhi govt

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Saturday said its home isolation model for Covid-19 patients is largely successful with no reported deaths among those recovering at home in the last 10 days.

Data provided by the government, which was also presented before chief minister Arvind Kejriwal by the health department on Friday, showed that the number of Covid-19 deaths in Delhi has declined over the past two weeks. Delhi’s fatality rate also declined from 3.64% (before June 24) to 3.02% (between June 24 and July 8).

According to Saturday’s bulletin, 34 people died in a single day, which is the lowest number of deaths reported in a single day in a month. The number of Covid-19 cases in the Capital now stands at 110,921, which includes 87,692 recoveries and 3,334 deaths.

During the fortnight between June 24 and July 8, 691 people died of Covid-19 in Delhi (an average of 46 deaths per day), the government said. The daily health bulletin reported 93 fresh deaths on a single day on June 16—the highest number of deaths in a single day in Delhi so far.

While sharing the data, the government, however, did not give the number of Covid-19 deaths in Delhi based on the ages of the deceased persons. The categorisation of deaths based on co-morbidities and non-co-morbidities was also unavailable when this report was filed.

“Of 691 deaths that took place during the last fortnight, only seven deaths took place in home isolation (between June 24 and June 30). Not a single patient in home isolation died in July. We can attribute this to the chief minister’s decision to distribute pulse oximeters to all patients in home isolation. The use of these oximeters alerts the patients of a drop in oxygen levels, which is an early sign of deteriorating health,” read the government statement.

The report prepared by the health department also stated that Delhi’s overall death rate in June came down to 3.02% from 3.64%. It stated that during these two weeks, the delay in hospital admission was among the cause of death of 28 Covid-19 patients. Of the 691 deaths, 505 patients were in serious condition when admitted to hospitals. Of the 505 patients, 291 were already in a hospital by the time their test results came out, government officials said.

A media advisor to the chief minister said that 15% of the 691 deaths took place during the first 48 hours of hospital admission, while nationally, 45% deaths in India have been taking place within this time frame.

“One reason for the declining fatality rate is that the condition of moderate patients is not turning severe because of plasma therapy. The therapy seems to have favourable initial results. This could further bring down the mortality rate in Delhi,” a government official said.

On Friday, Kejriwal led a review meeting to discuss what measures need to be taken to further reduce mortality.

“Since now, almost all deaths are taking place in hospitals and not in home isolation, it was felt that systems in each hospital need to be examined in detail. The CM has asked for the ratio of deaths to the total number of patients discharged in each hospital,” the CM’s office said.