COVID-19 cases rise to 455 in Delhi; No community transmission but cases could spike, says Kejriwal

With 59 fresh cases, the total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital rose to 445 on Saturday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said but asserted that the situation was under control and there was no community transmission of the disease.

Of the 3,488 cases of COVID-19 in the country, Delhi has the third highest after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Over 100 medical staff of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital were quarantined after two patients tested positive for the virus, even as the city government demanded that the Centre provide adequate personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.

According to Delhi's Health Department, 301 patients out of 445 are those who took part in the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin earlier this month, and Kejriwal said that the number of cases could spike as all 2,300 people evacuated from the Tablighi's 'markaz' were being tested.

Sharing the data, Kejriwal said 59 new cases came in the last 24 hours in the national capital but said the situation ie under control. The health department said 42 of these cases are linked to he markaz.

There were 40 cases of local transmission while a majority of other patients either had foreign travel history or they were recently evacuated from Tablighi Jamaat's Nizamuddin markaz, he said.

"We can say that this is local transmission and not community transmission," he said.

In community transmission, people do not get to know from whom they are getting affected but right now no such situation has occurred in Delhi, he said.

On Friday, the number of cases had spiralled by 93.

Kejriwal said that till now Delhi has witnessed six deaths due to coronavirus and five of the deceased had serious illness. "Among these six people five were above 60 and one person was 36-year-old. Among these six people, three were from markaz."