Delhi records over 4K new COVID-19 cases, highest single-day spike so far; tally crosses 2 lakh-mark

Delhi reported 4,039 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day spike here so far, as the tally breached the two lakh-mark in the national capital, where a record 54,517 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, authorities said. This is the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, that over 4,000 cases have been recorded in Delhi in a day.

The previous highest single-day spike of 3,947 cases in the city was recorded on June 23. Twenty fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 4,638, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department. The tally of active cases rose to 23,773 from 22,377 the previous day, it said.  The death toll from COVID-19 in Delhi stood at 4,618 on Tuesday.

The bulletin on Wednesday said the death toll from coronavirus infection has risen to 4,638 and the total number of cases has climbed to 2,01,174.  Delhi government has significantly ramped up testing in the past few days. Barring August 31 when over 14,000 tests were conducted and 1,358 fresh cases reported, since Sunday, daily cases count has been recorded in excess of 2,000.

The number of tests conducted and corresponding fresh cases reported from August 30-September 8 in that order are: 14389 (1358); 20437 (2024); 24198 (2312); 28835 (2509); 32834 (2737); 36219 (2914) 38895 (2973), 36046 (3256); 22954 (2077); and 45797 (3609).

The number of tests done per million, as on Wednesday, crossed the one-lakh mark, the count being 1,00,198, it said.  The positivity rate on Wednesday stood at 7.4 per cent while the recovery rate was over 85 per cent, the bulletin, adding that the case fatality rate stood at 2.31 per cent.

The number of containment zones in Delhi jumped to 1,226 from 1,166 the previous day.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal directed medical superintendents and authorities to take every possible step to prevent the spread of the virus in the city.

The chief minister earlier held a review meeting with Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, senior officials and medical superintendents of Delhi government-run hospitals.

Later he also tweeted to acknowledge the highest number of daily cases in Delhi, but asserted that the day saw "highest number of tests-54,517 against 15,000/20,000 tests till last week".

"If we did same no of tests, today's cases wud be less than 1500. So, don't b scared by no of cases. Del wages war against corona wid aggressive testing (sic)," he tweeted.

"No of deaths continues to be low. It is 20 today, against more than 100 oer day in June. People falling ill and recovering. Thro aggressive testing, we r isolating them and preventing its spread (sic)," Kejriwal said.

Jain also held a meeting with medical directors and medical superintendents of all Delhi government hospitals to review the status of testing, the bulletin said.  Delhi chief secretary also held a review meeting with all district magistrates on COVID-19 management, it said.

Since August 18, cases again have been coming in four-figure count in the city. According to the bulletin, out of the total number of beds in COVID hospitals, 8,636 are vacant.

Also, 2,906 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights, it said.

According to the bulletin, 1,72,763 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far.

The number of people in home isolation stands at 12,518.

The number of Rapid Antigen Tests conducted on Wednesday stood at 43,416 while the RT-PCR, CBNAAT and True NAAT tests figures were 11,101, in all adding to 54,517, according to the bulletin. The total number of tests done till date in Delhi stands at 19,03,780.