Delhi records 3,390 new cases, 64 more die due to COVID-19

New Delhi: Delhi on Thursday reported 3,390 new COVID-19 cases after experiencing the highest single-day surge in cases for the last few days this week, taking the total tally here to 73,780 the day after it surpassed Mumbai to become the city with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country. The Delhi government said that the Capital currently has 26,586 active cases, of which 15,159 are under home isolation. The Delhi government had on Thursday also managed to pressure the L-G to roll back on the new home isolation guidelines, effectively reversing the rules to as they were before the Centre stepped in.

However, with 64 deaths added to the toll in the last 24 hours, COVID-19 fatalities here have reached 2,429. Moreover, as many as 44,765 patients have recovered so far with 3,328 of them having recovered in the last 24 hours. A total of 4,38,012 tests have been conducted as on Thursday evening, as per the official health bulletin. Meanwhile, a court staff posted in the Rohini District Courts Complex tested positive and an official circular said he was a Reader in the court of Additional District Judge Sanjay Jindal.

Furthermore, the team formation by drawing personnel from various departments was started on Thursday to implement the Delhi government's revised COVID-19 response plan that includes, among other steps, door to door surveys for screening coronavirus-infected persons.

The house-to-house screening will be completed by June 30 in containment zones and for the rest of Delhi by July 6, in a mammoth exercise, as per the revised plan. District-level officials said teams for the exercise are being formed with personnel including booth-level officers, civil defence volunteers, Anganwadi workers and civic bodies staff among others. A senior government official said the total number of teams will depend on the number of households in each district and it will be need-based. It was also reported on Thursday that Delhi's first banquet hall to be converted into a COVID-19 facility in Daryaganj near the LNJP Hospital would be made free of cost for all patients with NGO Doctors For You taking care of all the costs.