Capital sees 1,250 fresh cases; 1,082 discharged

New Delhi: Delhi on Friday reported 1,250 new COVID-19 cases and added 13 deaths to its death toll from the contagious disease, officials here said, adding that the total number of cases in the city had gone up to 1,58,604 and that the death toll had climbed to 4,270.

According to the health department, a total of 17,735 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, yielding a daily positivity rate of 7.04 per cent as on Friday. Of these tests, 6,086 were RT-PCR tests and 11,649 were rapid antigen tests.

The official health bulletin on Friday showed that the Capital had a total of 1,42,908 recovered patients, with 1,082 of them having recovered in the last 24 hours. The number of active cases in the city now stands at 11,426, officials added.

With a total of 589 containment zones, according to the latest bulletin, 5,818 COVID-19 patients are now recovering under home isolation with over 10,500 COVID-19 beds vacant in the city. Delhi has so far conducted 13,92,928 tests since the outbreak with a rate of 73,312 tests per million of its population.

Meanwhile, the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Delhi government on Friday issued formal orders to de-link banquet halls from hospitals, citing a significant improvement in the pandemic situation here. This move comes after the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) in a meeting on Wednesday assessed the Covid situation in the Capital and permitted the state government to de-link them.

"One weekly per day per zone in all three municipal corporations/New Delhi Municipal Council/Delhi Cantonment Board shall be allowed to function on trial basis for a week i.e 24.08.2020 to 30.08.2020 in NCT of Delhi..." Dev, who is also chairman of DDMA's state executive committee, said in the order.

The DDMA has also issued the standard operating procedure to ensure the implementation of all anti-COVID-19 measures, including social distancing, during the functioning of these markets. Weekly markets in the city have been closed since March 25.

Moreover, the DDMA on Friday also issued official orders with respect to allowing hotels and restaurants to reopen their businesses along with the orders allowing weekly markets to resume in each municipal ward on a one week trial basis. Both these orders were issued after the DDMA meeting on Wednesday approved the move first proposed by the Delhi government.

The move to reopen hotels and weekly markets was again caught up in a bitter

difference of opinion between the Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governor's office, with the L-G vetoing the decision to reopen them

and the matter lying in limbo for weeks before the DDMA met over it.