Delhi has 'least' fatality ratio among major cities in Delhi, claims Satyendar Jain

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths due to the virus in Delhi, city's Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday claimed the national capital reported the "least" fatality ratio among major cities in the country. Jain said that rapid addition of ICU beds and other medical facilities have helped the Delhi government in keeping the fatality ratio low.

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths due to the virus in Delhi, city's Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday claimed the national capital reported the "least" fatality ratio among major cities in the country. Jain said that rapid addition of ICU beds and other medical facilities have helped the Delhi government in keeping the fatality ratio low.  "Delhi has least fatality ratio amongst all major cities in India. Rapid addition of ICU beds and other medical facilities have helped us achieve this. We are doing our best to save each and every life," Jain tweeted.

The health minister also shared a list of cities, including Ahmedabad, Mumbai, ,Howrah, Nagpur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Thane, Surat, Pune and Chennai, all having higher fatality ratios than 1.6 in Delhi. The list, however, did not mention any source. Case fatality ratio is the proportion of deaths due to a disease and total numbers diagnosed with it over a period of time.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal retweeted Jain's tweet without commenting on it. As many as 121 fatalities were recorded on Monday, same as the previous day, according to the daily Health Bulletin of the Delhi government.

The deaths in past 12 days have crossed the 100 mark on six days. Authorities reported 121 deaths on Sunday, 111 on Saturday, 118 on Friday, 131 on November 18, the highest till date, and 104 fatalities on November 12.

Jain on Monday attributed heavy pollution due to stubble burning in neighbouring states as a reason behind the high death rate in Delhi. He had also claimed that since stubble burning has lessened in the past few days, the death rate will also climb down in the coming 2-3 weeks.

In its fight against COVID-19, the Delhi government has been trying hard to increase hospital beds, specially ICU beds for treating patients. The chief minister in a virtual COVID-19 review meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for reserving 1000 ICU beds in central government hospitals in Delhi for coronavirus patients.

He said adequate number of non-ICU COVID beds are available in Delhi, however, there is a lack of ICU beds. The third wave of coronavirus in Delhi was at its peak on November 10 with 8,600 positive cases but now the positivity rate is continuously declining, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)