Around 113 fresh cases of dengue were reported in the national Capital last week, suggested the weekly report released by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Monday.
Out of the fresh cases while 42 belonged to Delhi, 61 were found to be acquired from other states after investigation. In 10 cases, address of the patients was not revealed by the hospitals.
Although there has been a dip in the number of cases, with more fresh cases last week, the number has risen to 317 in December which is much higher than that of the previous year, the report suggested.
According to the report, last year in December the number of cases belonging only to Delhi were 81, however, this year, the number exclusive to the national capital is at least 117.
With this, the total number of cases this year has risen to 7,082 out of which 2,774 belong to Delhi while 3,546 are infections acquired from other states. Of the total, 762 are untraced, the reported suggested.
At least four people, including two minor children, have died in the city due to the vector-borne disease this year till December second week.
The victims were identified by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) as Aman Tiwari (13), Sanskriti (21) and Gagan (23) while Harshita (13) from Wazirabad area of Nort Delhi was the first victim of dengue this year.
Apart from that, one case of malaria in Delhi and four cases of chikungunya including two from other states and two untraced were also reported, the report stated.
To counter the situation, doctors in the capital have advised people to take precautions to ensure that there was no breeding of mosquito larvae around them and urged them to wear full-sleeves and use mosquito nets.
Water coolers should be dried up when not in use as dengue infection-carrying mosquitoes breed there a lot, a doctor said.
Besides this, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) last week sprayed 16,015 new houses. The total number of houses sprayed this year is 27, 73,915.
“Last week, around 964 houses were found positive for mosquito breeding out which action was taken in 717 cases and legal notices were sent to these places,” said a senior MCD official.
Last week, 15 fresh prosecutions were also launched for violating the guidelines of MCD, the official added.
This year, around 186739 legal notices have been sent so far while 25971 prosecutions have been launched, the report added.
