A private hospital in Delhi on Wednesday said five persons have died from complications caused by chikungunya, bringing the toll caused by the disease to 10. PTI reported that the victims were 80-years-old and above. Health facilities in the nation's capital have been grappling with the vector-borne illness, as the number of cases reported have risen above the 1,000 mark. A municipal report released on Tuesday shows 1,057 chikungunya cases have been reported till September 10.

The Aam Aadmi Party government in the state has urged for cooperation between the administration and Bharatiya Janata Party-dominated municipalities in dealing with the crisis. Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra, who met Arvind Kejriwal in Bengaluru after the chief minister underwent a throat surgery, said Kejriwal called a united fight against the "disease and mosquitoes", NDTV reported.

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Four of the deaths were earlier reported at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. A suspected chikungunya death was reported at the All India Institute of Medical sciences, but officials have not confirmed it. The news agency quoted an Apollo Hospital official, who said, “We have had five deaths in the past three weeks of patients with chikungunya fever, most of whom were elderly. Eighty-year-old Mahendra Singh from Ghaziabad died of chikungunya complications yesterday afternoon.”

An official said, “Most of them had associated co-morbid disease conditions and complications like chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, which affect the course of recovery.” Doctors say that while the disease itself is not life-threatening, the elderly and children were particularly vulnerable to develop complications which could prove fatal.

The Union Health Ministry has asked the Delhi administration for a detailed assessment of the deaths related to the disease, NDTV reported. Delhi's Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Tuesday claimed that the national capital did not have an outbreak of chikungunya and blamed the media for creating panic about it.