NEW DELHI: In just one week, the national capital has recorded more than thousand cases of dengue infections along with three more deaths. According to the weekly report released by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), since the first week of November, there have been 1,171 dengue cases taking the total count to 2,708 which is the highest since 2018 for the same period.
The death count due to the vector borne disease has also reached nine. The first death was recorded in October. Last week, the civic bodies had added five more fatalities owing to dengue. The last time it was in 2017 when the fatality count crossed the single digit with the civic bodies registering 10 deaths.
In October, 1,196 cases were reported. Till October 30 this year, total number of cases were 1,537, and the death toll then was six. The most number of dengue cases are being reported by the south civic body followed by the north and east corporations.
As per officials from the civic body, many of the hospitals are reporting the municipal authorities with backlog dengue cases owing to which there is a spike in the weekly data. “Added to the backlogs, the reporting of dengue cases has drastically gone up. Earlier around 70 hospitals including private ones would send data on dengue. Now it has gone up to around 160 hospitals.
Every small one is also sending data and therefore, the figures are so high. Otherwise cases are not so high. There is daily huge rush of patients from neighbouring states as well. Many deaths are also of those from other states, but we are not including that count in our data. Yet, the figure is still under control if compared to that of 2015,” said an official from the civic body.