Anti-dengue campaign to end Sunday, CM congratulates people of Delhi

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday praised the people of Delhi for no dengue-related death and the relatively lower number of cases of the vector-borne disease this year.

On the eve of completion of his government's anti-dengue campaign '10 Hafte 10 Baje 10 Minute', he once again appealed to the citizens of Delhi to join him in driving home the message of prevention of the disease.

"People from Delhi have successfully managed to bring dengue cases to 489 this year from 15,867 in 2015. Compared to 60 dengue-related deaths in 2015 there have been no dengue-related deaths this year," Kejriwal was quoted as saying in a statement from his office.

Responding to the appeal of the chief minister, the residents of Delhi including children, RWA members, traders and celebrities made the '10 Hafte 10 Baje, 10 Minute' campaign "a significant success story", the statement said.

"The cases of dengue have reduced even more and no dengue-related death has taken place in Delhi this year. Delhi has again defeated dengue," Kejriwal said.

Recently, he had said this campaign was being praised across the country and sought to credit it for no fatality due to the vector-borne disease being recorded in the city this year.

A few days ago, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had attributed the same to the 10 week-long campaign.

Last week, the campaign got support from celebrities such as Shankar Mahadevan, who encouraged the citizens of Delhi to religiously follow the dengue prevention guidelines such as inspecting their residences for signs of stagnant water, draining the accumulated water or adding a layer of oil or petrol to it to prevent breeding of mosquitoes.

However, according to data shared by the civic bodies, over600 dengue cases have been recorded in the national capital this year till October 31, with 346 of those being reported in the last month.

The number of cases of malaria and chikungunya in the same period, stands at 210 and 86 respectively, according to data shared by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), the nodal agency that tabulates data on vector-borne diseases for the city.

The number of dengue cases recorded in August, September and October stood at 47, at 188 and 346 respectively, as per the data.

In 2019, the number of dengue cases reported till October 31 was 1,069, while the total number of cases of vector-borne diseases reported throughout that year was 2,036, with two deaths recorded, as per the data shared by the SDMC.