City sees 3,036 new cases & 45 deaths; over 54,000 tests conducted in a day

New Delhi: Delhi recorded 45 more novel coronavirus deaths, taking the toll to 5,854 on Tuesday, while the tally rose to 3.14 lakh with 3,036 new cases, the Health Department said.

The number of new daily cases recorded from October 2-12 stood below the 3,000-mark.

The 3,036 positive cases came out of 54,957 tests. Forty-five more fatalities have been recorded, taking the death toll to 5,854, according to the a health bulletin.

There are 21,490 active cases, up from 20,535 the previous day. The total number of cases has climbed to 3,14,224 and 28,6880 people have recovered, it said.

The number of containment zones slightly increased to 2,747. The positivity rate stood at 5.52 per cent while the recovery rate crossed 91 per cent, the bulletin said, adding the case fatality rate stood at 1.86 per cent.

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

According to the bulletin, out of the total number of 16,117 beds in COVID hospitals, 11,008 are vacant. It said that 956 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine.

The Delhi government has significantly ramped up testing in the past few days, with the count on several times crossing the 60,000 mark.

The number of rapid antigen tests conducted on Monday stood at 43,934, while the RT-PCR, CBNAAT and True NAAT tests figures were 11,023, totalling to 54,957, according to the bulletin.

The number of tests done per million is over 1.95 lakh, while the total number of tests stood at over 37 lakh.

The number of people in home isolation slightly dropped to 12,176 on Tuesday compared to 12,365 the previous day.

Meanwhile, after Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday announced that the onset of winter could lead to a spurt in novel Coronavirus cases, experts too have warned of another wave later this year, if standard protocol is not strictly followed. Dr Akshay Budhraja, Consultant Department of Pulmonology, Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital said there is a high probability that during winters, India will see a spike in number of COVID cases, especially moderate to severe covid cases. "Reason for this probable spike in winters will be rising pollution during winters and secondly so many festivals in coming months. Overcrowding, traffic and social gatherings are observed during festivals, which can be a major reason for the rapid transmission of virus and spike in number of COVID cases," he added.

Dr Budhraja also said that high level of air pollution affects body's immunity and makes a person prone to viral diseases. "People with chronic disease like diabetes, asthma, kidney disease, heart disease etc are more likely to become seriously ill during winters," he added.

Experts said following protocols and wearing a mask are the essentials to fight COVID-19.