61 Cases Of Dengue In Delhi This year; 22 In March

Till March 26 this year, 55 cases of dengue were recorded in the city.

Six fresh cases have been reported in the last one week, it said.

According to the civic report on vector-borne diseases, at least 61 dengue cases have been recorded this year.

The city had reported 23 cases in January, 16 in February and 22 in March. No cases have been recorded this month till April 2.

For the January 1-April 2 period, seven cases were logged last year, six cases each in 2020 and 2019, while 12 cases were logged in 2018 and 13 in 2017, the report stated.

Cases of vector-borne diseases are usually reported between July and November, but the period may stretch till mid-December.

Last year, 9,613 dengue cases, the highest number of cases of the vector-borne disease, was recorded in Delhi in a year since 2015, while 23 deaths were also reported.

South Delhi Municipal Corporation Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti had issued advisory on prevention and control of vector-borne diseases in Delhi, last week.

The SDMC is the nodal agency for control of vector-borne diseases in the city.

The advisory had been sent to all offices of central, state governments, CPWD, PWD, DDA, Delhi Police, Delhi Jal Board and DMRC.

Registrars of all universities and deemed universities in Delhi, all associations of professionals and all associations of traders and Chambers of Commerce have also been sent the advisory, the SDMC had said.

The commissioner had said that this year, there is a need to concentrate more on educational institutions, colleges and schools as they were closed due to COVID-19 crisis, and were now reopening.

Bharti had also called upon RWAs, market association and the general public to take preventive measures failing which the outbreak of dengue and chikungunya may become uncontrollable.

In the years prior to 2021, the total dengue cases reported were -- 4431 (2016), 4726 (2017), 2798 (2018), 2036 (2019) and 1072 (2020), according to the report.

In 2015, the city had witnessed a massive outbreak of dengue, when the number of dengue cases reported has crossed 10,600 in October itself, making it the worst outbreak of the vector-borne disease in the national capital since 1996.

The number of dengue fatalities logged in 2021 was the highest in the national capital since 2016, when the officially reported death count was 10.

Delhi had recorded two deaths due to dengue in 2019, four in 2018, and 10 each in 2017 and 2016.

The civic report, released on Monday, also stated that five cases of malaria and eight cases of chikungunya have been reported so far this year in Delhi.