With an average of 1,250 COVID-19 cases daily, Delhi added 10,000 cases in just eight days from June 1, a sharp spike from the 79 days it took to reach the 10,000 mark, analysis of data provided by the city government reveals.
The city took 13 days for the tally to progress from 10,000 to the 20,000 mark.
Delhi reported its first novel coronavirus case on March 1, when a businessman in East Delhi was diagnosed with the disease after returning from Italy.
By May 18, the national capital had reported a total of 10,054 cases at an average of nearly 127 instances of the infection daily. In the next 13 days, the tally rose to 19,844, the Delhi government data shows.
The number of deaths also saw a three-fold increase -- from 160 till May 18 to 473 by May 31.
According to the Delhi government's health bulletin on Monday, the total number of COVID-19 cases reported in the national capital stood at 29,943 while 874 have died of the disease. The tally of total cases breached the 30,000 mark and the death toll rose to 905 the next day.
On June 3, the city witnessed the highest single-day spike in coronavirus cases at 1,513.
It was on May 28 when the national capital for the first time recorded more than 1,000 cases. Delhi reported over 1,000 coronavirus cases for four days in a row between May 28 and May 31.
On May 31, as many as 1,295 fresh cases were reported, while on May 30, 1,163 cases were detected. May 29 saw an addition of 1,106 cases while on the day before, 1,024 new cases were added to the tally.
On June 1, there were 990 new cases but from June 2 onwards, the daily spike was above 1,000.
Amid the surge in cases, the Delhi government has said that current doubling rate of the infection in the city was 14 days, so by that estimation will it will see over 56,000 cases by in the next two weeks.
The cases will explode to 5.5 lakh by July-end, it said.
In an online briefing on Wednesday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said Delhi will need 1.5 lakh beds in healthcare facilities by July 31 once people start coming to the city for treatment from other states.
The chief minister said of the 1.5 lakh beds, it is estimated that 80,000 will be required for Delhiites, adding that the calculation is based on numbers that show 50 per cent of the beds in hospitals in the national capital were occupied by those from other states before the coronavirus pandemic.
Nationwide, in the first nine days of June fatalities and new COVID-19 cases were more than 50 per cent of the figures in May.
India registered over 9,500 coronavirus cases for the sixth day in a row and 279 fatalities in 24 hours till Wednesday 8 am, pushing the country's COVID-19 tally to 2,76,583 and death toll to 7,745, the Union health ministry said.
