New Delhi: Delhi on Thursday reported a record number of COVID-19 tests conducted in 24 hours as the official health bulletin showed that the Capital had managed to conduct 32,834 tests including RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests in one day.
However, with a positivity rate of around 8 per cent, the city reported 2,737 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest single-day spike in 67 days, taking the infection tally to over 1.82 lakh, while the death toll mounted to 4,500, authorities here said. This is the third successive day in September in which over 2,000 new cases have been reported.
According to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department, 19 more fatalities have been reported in the city and the number of active cases currently stands at 17,692. It was 16,502 a day ago. Also, the number of containment zones have jumped to 922 from 894 on Wednesday, according to the bulletin.
According to the bulletin, out of the total number of beds in COVID hospitals in the city, 9,663 are vacant. According to the bulletin, 1,60,114 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far.
The number of people in home isolation stands at 9,135, an increase of over 40 per cent in a month.
The total number of tests done till date in Delhi stands at 16,69,352, and the number of tests done per million, as on Thursday, was 87,861, it said.
Earlier in the day, health minister Satyendar Jain said that the recent rise in Delhi's coronavirus cases is not a part of a second wave of the virus. Speaking to reporters here, he said people "should not stress about numbers".
The minister said the Delhi government is increasing the testing for COVID-19 and it wants that there should be no positive case in the city. After a brief lull, Delhi has seen a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases over the last few days.
Asked if Delhi is heading towards the second wave of coronavirus infections, Jain said, "You cannot say it is a second wave. We could have called it a second wave if there were no positive cases for one or two months and then cases would have started coming again. The virus is still there in Delhi. You should not stress about numbers."
He said Delhi's case fatality ratio was 0.75 per cent on Wednesday, which is a good sign. "Overall, it is 2.5 per cent. Yesterday, it was less than one per cent, which is a good sign. At one time, it was 3.5 per cent," he added.
Jain said the Delhi government is working to increase testing for COVID-19.
"We are increasing (the number of) tests. We are emphasising on testing and working aggressively on it. Yesterday, the number was around 30,000 and today the number of tests will be around 35,000.
If a case is isolated at home or hospital, he won't be able to infect 10 people. We want that not one positive case should be there," he said.