Delhi registers record single-day spike of 5,891 fresh Covid-19 cases

The highest single-day rise of 5,891 COVID-19 cases on Friday took Delhi's tally of infection to over 3.81 lakh, while the positivity rate shot up to nearly 10 per cent amid festivities and rising pollution in the city.

This was the third consecutive day when over 5,000 cases have been reported in a day in Delhi. On Thursday, the city recorded 5,739 cases of coronavirus infection.

The national capital also recorded 47 new fatalities on Friday, pushing the death toll to 6,470, according to a bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

As many as 59,641 tests for detection of COVID-19 was conducted on Thursday. The number of active cases in the city rose to 32,363 on Friday from 30,952 the previous day, it stated.

The bulletin said the total number of cases in the city has climbed to 3,81,644, while the number of containment zones in Delhi increased to 3,113 from 3,047 on Wednesday.

The sudden spike in COVID-19 cases comes amid festivities and rising air pollution level. While Durga Puja celebrations ended on October 25, the next major festivals are Diwali and Chhath in November.

The National Centre for Disease Control in a report drafted recently had warned that Delhi needs to be prepared for about 15,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 per day taking into account the upcoming winter season-related respiratory problems, large influx of patients from outside and festive gatherings.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev held a review meeting with all district magistrates on COVID-19 management, the bulletin said.

Milling crowd during the festive season, increase in pollution level and laxity in behaviour by many in observing COVID-19 safety norms have led to a massive surge in daily cases in the national capital in the last few days, experts said on Thursday.

The bulletin said 3,42,811 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far while the recovery rate on Wednesday was over 89 per cent.

According to it, of the total 15,759 beds in COVID hospitals, 9,645 are vacant. The bulletin said 437 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by people under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights.

The Delhi government has significantly ramped up testing in the past few days, with the count on multiple times crossing the 60,000 mark.

The number of rapid antigen tests conducted on Thursday stood at 42,583 while the RT-PCR, CBNAAT and True NAAT tests figures were 17,058 in all adding to 59,641, according to the bulletin.

The number of tests done per million, as on Thursday, was over 2.44 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 46 lakh. The number of people in home isolation rose to 19,064 compared to 18,069 the previous day.