3,609 test positive, highest single-day spike in 76 days

New Delhi: Delhi on Tuesday reported 3,609 new COVID-19 cases in what is the Capital's highest daily spike of cases in 76 days and the second-highest number of new cases since the outbreak began. However, the city also boasted of having conducted over 45,000 tests in 24 hours.

According to the Delhi government's latest health bulletin, the death toll mounted to 4,618, after 19 more fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours.

On June 23, Delhi had recorded the highest single-day spike of 3,947 cases so far.

The figure on Tuesday also surpassed Sunday's figure when the national capital had recorded 3,256 cases.

The 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 August 30, daily case count has been recorded in excess of 2,000.

Even on September 7, the number of tests conducted was 22,954, while the single-day spike was 2,077.

The number of tests conducted and corresponding fresh cases reported from August 30-September 6 in that order are: 14,389 (1,358); 20,437 (2,024); 24,198 (2,312); 28,835 (2,509); 32,834 (2,737); 36,219 (2,914) and 38,895 (2,973), 36,046 (3,256).

The tally of cases in the national capital rose to 1,97,135, of which 1,70,140 patients have either recovered, been discharged or migrated out. The number of active cases stands at 22,377, up from 20,543 the previous day, the bulletin said.

The positivity rate stood at 7.8 per cent in the last 24 hours while the recovery rate was 86.30 per cent, it said.

The cumulative positivity rate stands at 10.66 per cent while the case fatality rate stood at 2.34 per cent.

The number of containment zones stands at 1,166, up from 1,114 the previous day. Since August 18, cases again have been coming in four-figure count, according to data.

According to the bulletin, out of the total 14,202 beds in COVID hospitals, 8,788 are vacant.

Also, 2,731 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned through the Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights, it said.

As many as 11,742 people are in home isolation, it said.

The total number of tests done to date in Delhi stands at 18,49,263. The number of tests done per million, as on Tuesday, was 97,329, it said.

Jain also held a meeting with Medical Directors/Medical Superintendents of all Delhi government hospitals to review the status of testing.

Delhi chief secretary also held a review meeting with all the District magistrates on COVID-19 management.

The national capital had recorded 2,077 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking the tally to over 1.93 lakh, while the death toll mounted to 4,599.