City reports 3,229 new cases; active cases nearly doubled in 2 weeks

New Delhi: As Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, the Capital reported 3,229 new cases, a relatively fewer number of cases compared to the last few days. But testing had also dipped to a little over 44,000 tests in the last

24 hours.

Twenty-six fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the Delhi government's latest health bulletin, taking total fatalities from the disease to 4,770.

Before this, the city had recorded over 4,000 cases for five days on a trot — 4,235 on Sunday, 4,321 on Saturday, 4,266 on Friday, 4,308 on Thursday and 4,039 on Wednesday.

Of the total 2,21,533 cases reported in Delhi so far, 1,88,122 have either recovered, been discharged or migrated out, the bulletin said.

In the last 24 hours, 44,884 tests were conducted to detect COVID-19 infection, of which 9,859 were RTPCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat tests and 35,025 were rapid antigen tests. A record 60,580 tests were conducted last Friday, followed by 60,076 on Saturday.

Health Minister Satyendar Jain held a meeting with medical directors and medical superintendents of all Delhi government hospitals on Monday to review the status of testing. Chief Secretary Vijay Dev also chaired a meeting of all district magistrates on COVID-19 management.

The health authorities have conducted around six lakh tests in the last two weeks — with an average of more than 42,000 a day. The number of total tests conducted was 15,83,485 on August 31. It rose to 21,84,316 on Monday.

The case positivity rate during the last 24 hours was 7.19 per cent while the cumulative positivity rate was 10.14 per cent. Since August end, the number of active cases has nearly doubled in the city. It was 14,626 on August 31 and 28,641 on Monday. There has been an over 82 per cent increase in the number of containment zones in the city - from 833 on August 31 to 1,517 on Monday.