Delhi sees spike of 1412 COVID cases; containment zones rise to 591 as city reopens hotels

Just days after Delhi government gave nod to open hotels and gyms in the national capital, Delhi on Sunday witnessed a record spike of 1,412 COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since July 18. Also, the number of containment zones in Delhi has also risen from 539 on August 1 to 591 on August 21.

The maximum of 137 active containment zones is in Southwest district, followed by West (63), South (55) and North (50). All the other districts have less than 50 active containment zones, with New Delhi and Northwest districts having 17 such areas each. The total number of active containment zones in the national capital is 466 while 125 zones are in the process of scaling down towards decontainment.

The situation in Delhi immediately appears after state Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Saturday that hotels in the National capital will reopen as per SOPs issued by the Central government. This statement from the health minister came a day after DDMA issued an order asking hotels to open in the city with various anti-COVID-19 measures.

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The increase in the number of containment zones is due to smaller areas being contained now according to Delhi health officials as per reports, while they claim the spike is a minor one.

Covid-19 situation in Delhi

Delhi has seen a fluctuation in the number of coronavirus cases since August 1. On August 1, the number of daily cases reported was 1,118 while for the next three days, the number of infections reported in a day stayed below the 1,000-mark.

From August 5 to August 9, the number of fresh COVID-19 cases again stayed above the 1,000-mark, only to come down to 707 on August 10. As many as 1,404 cases were recorded on August 8, the previous highest single-day spike of August.

Three days between August 11 and August 22 saw less than 1,000 fresh cases being reported—August 13 (956), August 16 (652), and August 17 (787). Coincidentally, the days the number was below 1,000, the number of tests conducted was also less than the average in the national capital, which is 20,000 daily.

The number of active cases in Delhi has also risen from 10,596 on August 1 to 11,594 on August 22.

In July, the number of containment zones was more than 700 in Delhi, but it gradually declined in August owing to the government allowing the "red" zones to be denotified 14 days after the discharge of the last confirmed case, instead of the earlier norm of 28 days.

(With PTI inputs)

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