312 fresh cases in Capital, highest in nearly 1.5 mths
New Delhi: Delhi recorded 312 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest number of daily incidences in nearly one-and-a-half months, while three more fatalities pushed the death toll in the city to 10,918, according to data shared by the Health Department.
It was also a significant jump from 261 cases registered on Thursday.
A total of 585 cases were reported on January 1 and 384 on January 4. The daily count had dropped to 306 on January 11 and risen again to 386 on January 12, according to official figures. The numbers had started to come down in February, and on February 26, 256 cases were recorded, the highest daily count in that month.
On Friday, 312 fresh cases were recorded and three new fatalities pushed the death toll to 10,918, according to the latest health bulletin.
The number of active cases of the disease in the city increased to 1,779 on Friday from 1,701 on Thursday, while the positivity rate rose to 0.53 from 0.39 per cent the previous day.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has directed authorities to continue with the existing strategy against COVID-19, including cluster-based surveillance, testing and genome sequencing owing to the rise in the number of cases in the country, an official said on Friday.
Baijal, who chaired a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, told officials that there is no need to lower the guard against the virus as the COVID-19 situation is under control with a "marginal increase", the official said.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, Niti Aayog member V K Paul among others.
"In view of the yet rising national trends in terms of new infections, it was decided to continue with the existing strategy of cluster based surveillance, testing and genome sequencing," an official said.
Earlier this week, the Union Health Ministry had said Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have shown a surge in new COVID-19 cases.
At the DDMA meeting on Friday, experts felt that enforcement of COVID-appropriate behaviour and existing levels of RT-PCR testing need to be maintained in the national capital as some states have been witnessing a rise in number of infections, the official said.
