NEW DELHI: The second wave of Covid-19 (fourth wave in the national capital), which saw a massive surge in cases and death in April and May, reported maximum fatalities in the age-group of 61 and 70 years, said the Delhi government’s health department in reply to a query filed by this newspaper under Right to Information (RTI) Act.A total of 13,203 persons succumbed to the deadly infection in these two months, according to the Delhi government’s daily health bulletin. Of these, 6,813 people belonged to the 60-plus age-group, which accounts for 51.6 per cent, while 6,390 of the deceased were under than 60 years of age, revealed the reply to the query.
Of the total number of people who died, 3,233 were in the 61-70 age group, comprising 24 per cent of the total deaths, which is the highest compared to other age groups. As per the RTI reply provided by the Delhi Government Health Services (DGHS), 3,081 Covid-19 patients belonging to the 51-60 age-group succumbed to the virus, accounting for 23 per cent of total deaths in April and May, while 2,423 patients, or 18 per cent, in the 71-80 age-group and 1,829 patients, or 14 per cent, in the 41-50 age bracket lost their lives because of the disease in the national capital in these two months.
The deadly second wave also took the lives of as many as 94 children up to the age of 10 years, while 47 children between the ages of 11 and 20 years succumbed to the devastating disease. According to the RTI reply by the DGHS, 75 children up to the age of 10 had died because of Covid-19 last year, while the disease had claimed 124 children aged between 11 and 20 years from March to November in 2020.
During the fourth wave, or second nationwide wave, Delhi hospitals claimed that more young adults were admitted and succumbed to the viral infection. The RTI reply revealed that 1,339 patients aged between 20 and 40 years died in April-May, which accounts for 10 per cent of the total fatalities in the period.A total of 25,015 people have died in the pandemic in Delhi since its outbreak in March 2020. However, things seem to have subsided significantly over the last few weeks. The daily death toll has come down to single digits and daily new cases have also been under 100 for a number of days.