Delhi: Only 356 cases of dengue against 650 by this time last year

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that his government's '10 Hafte 10 Baje 10 Minute' campaign has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of dengue cases to just 356 as compared to 650 by this time last year.

As per the report released by Delhi's municipal bodies' Anti Malaria wing, this week the state-capital saw just 74 fresh cases of dengue, taking this year's count to 356 till the first week of October. In 2018, the number of cases reported by this time of the year was almost double the cases reported so far.

Sharing the data, Kejriwal tweeted: "I am very happy to share that the '10 Baje 10 Hafte 10 Minute' campaign against dengue has shown stunning results. Congrats to the people of Delhi! The number of cases reported in Delhi so far is just 356, compared to 650 by this time last year. Most importantly, we have not yet lost a single life."In 2015, Delhi had 7,606 cases of dengue till the first week of October, while in 2016 and 2017 the number was 2,133 and 2,152 respectively. The Delhi government's fight against dengue started in 2015 when the city saw a massive outbreak leading to 15,867 cases and as many as 60 deaths. By 2018, the number of cases had reduced by 80 per cent to just 2,798.

The '10 Hafte 10 Baje 10 Minute' campaign was conceptualised along the lines of the Earth hour, where people were encouraged on a large scale to inspect their homes every Sunday morning at 10 am for ten minutes, for ten consecutive weeks.

Emphasising the results, the Chief Minister said that he strongly believed that the impacts of this campaign will not be limited to this year alone.

"One of the most important purposes of the campaign was to educate people about the origins of the dengue mosquito. Before I began the campaign on September 1, I had conducted a survey on my social media profiles about whether dengue breeds in clean water or dirty water and over 35 per cent people stated that dengue breeds in dirty water. We realised that the myths around dengue have to be clarified so that people are better prepared to fight dengue," he said.