Dengue has claimed another life, that of a seven-year-old girl in the city, taking the death toll to 42 while the total number of people down with the vector-borne disease in the city has crossed the 12,000 mark with over 1,300 fresh cases reported in the past five days.
The girl, a resident of Jamia Nagar, was admitted to Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in Sarita Vihar last night in a critical condition and died today morning, said hospital authorities.
Though unofficially the number of dengue deaths is 42, the civic administration put the official toll at 32, according to a municipal report released today.
September alone has seen 6,775 cases, also the highest in the last six years. Incidentally, no cases had been reported in the first three days of this month.
Out of the total cases, south Delhi recorded the highest at 2,578, north Delhi at 2,561 while east Delhi posted the lowest with 1502 cases.
Of all civic zones in the city, Najafgarh Zone of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has recorded the highest number with 832 cases.
And, 1,829 people diagnosed positive for the deadly disease came from outside of Delhi.
Standing at over 12,000, dengue outbreak this year has become the worst outbreak since 1996. That year, 10,252 cases and 423 deaths were reported.
The figure for the total number of cases had crossed the 1996-mark on October 10 only with 10,683 people down with the deadly virus.
In 2010, as many as 6,259 total cases were recorded and only eight deaths were officials reported throughout the year.
995 cases were registered in entire 2014 while in 2013 it stood at 5574.
Over 2,000 cases were recorded in 2012 while 2011 saw 1,131 cases.
Last year, the city had reported three deaths and recorded nearly 1,000 cases.
Till October 10, the number of houses found positive for mosquito breeding stands at 2,16,870 while number of prosecution launched in the same period is 20,670, according to the SDMC, which compiles the report on behalf of all civic bodies.