COVID-19: Delhi records 7,546 fresh cases; 98 deaths take toll to over 8,000-mark

Delhi recorded 7,546 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 5.1 lakh, even as 98 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 8,041, authorities said. These fresh cases came out of the 62,437 tests conducted the previous day, including 22,067 RT-PCR tests, the highest till date.

The positivity rate stood at 12.09 per cent amid the festive season and rising pollution in the city, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

The highest single-day spike till date here -- 8593 cases -- was recorded on November 11 when 85 fatalities were recorded.

Ninety-eight fatalities were recorded on Thursday, pushing the toll in the national capital to over 8,000-mark.

The active cases tally on Thursday rose to 43,221 from 42,458, the previous day.

The bulletin said that the total number of cases has climbed to 5,10,630, while the recovery rate stood at over 89 per cent.

The number of containment zones in Delhi rose to 4,501 on Thursday from 4,449 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has issued an order whereby 42 private hospitals here shall reserve 80 per cent of the their total ICU bed capacity for COVID-19 patients.

The copy of the order was shared by Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Twitter.

He also shared a copy of another order in a separate tweet whereby 90 private hospitals shall reserve 60 per cent of their total beds for treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that his government is working on a "war-footing" to expand the number of ICU beds in various hospitals.

Interacting with reporters after visiting DDU Hospital, he said the doctors have agreed to expand the ICU beds count at the facility from existing 50 to 100.

Amid a huge surge in COVID-19 cases in the national capital, the Delhi government on Thursday also directed all the district magistrates to take steps to double the number of testing centres in their respective districts immediately. The sudden spike in cases comes amid the festive season and rising pollution level. While Durga Puja celebrations ended on October 25, Diwali fell on Saturday and Chhath is on November 20-21.

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.

According to the Wednesday bulletin, out of the total number of 16,965 beds in COVID hospitals, 7471 are vacant. It said that 542 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned under the Vande Bharat Mission and by bubble flights. The Delhi government has significantly ramped up testing in the past few days, with the count on several times crossing the 60,000-mark.

On Wednesday, 22,067 RT-PCR tests while 40,370 rapid antigen tests were conducted, the bulletin said. The number of tests done per million as on Wednesday was over 2.97 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 56 lakh. The bulletin said that 4,59,368 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far. Since September, daily cases had begun to rise in the city. From the last week of September, it had stated to come down a bit. The number of people in home isolation dropped to 25,367 on Thursday from 25,533, the previous day.