With 2,024 new cases, city records highest single-day spike in August

New Delhi: Delhi recorded the highest single-day spike of 2,024 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking the tally to over 1.73 lakh, while the death toll mounted to 4,426 with 22 fresh fatalities, authorities said.

This is the highest single-day spike in the national Capital in the last nearly 50 days, as fresh cases were reported in excess of 2,000 from July 7 to July 10. It stood at 2,008 on July 7 and 2,089 on July 10.

According to Delhi government's health bulletin, 22 fresh fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours.

A total of 20,437 tests — 6,881 RTPCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat tests and 13,556 rapid antigen tests — were conducted in the last 24 hours, it said.

A total of 15,69,096 tests have been conducted till date while the number of tests per million population stands at 82,584. The positivity rate in the national Capital stands at 9.90 per cent while the recovery rate at 89.23 per cent, the bulletin said.

Sunday's tally surpassed Saturday's tally when 1,954 fresh COVID-19 cases were recorded. The total cases in the city on Saturday stood at 1,71,366 and the death toll rose to 4,404.

The total number of COVID-19 cases stood at 1,73,390, out of which 1,54,171 patients have either recovered, migrated out or been discharged. The number of active cases stands at 14,793, up from 14,040 the previous day, it said.

A total of 1,249 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, the bulletin stated. The number of containment zones stands at 820, up from 803 the previous day. Out of 14,145 beds, 4,030 are occupied.

A total of 4,154 beds of Covid Care Centres are occupied by people under quarantine, including travellers who came by the Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights.

Fresh cases and active cases have shown an increase in the last several days, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announcing on Wednesday that COVID-19 tests in Delhi will be doubled to 40,000 per day within a week as there has been a marginal increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city.

Delhi has seen a fluctuation in the number of coronavirus cases since the beginning of this month.

On August 1, the city recorded 1,118 fresh cases while for the next three days, the number of infections reported in a single-day stayed below the 1,000-mark.

From August 5 to August 9, the number of fresh COVID-19 cases again stayed above the 1,000-mark only to come down to 707 on August 10. Three days between August 11 and August 22, the city saw less than 1,000 fresh cases — August 13 (956), August 16 (652), and August 17 (787).

Meanwhile, around 30 per cent of the coronavirus patients admitted to Delhi hospitals in August were from other states, according to government data. Non-residents also accounted for more than half the number of deaths reported in the national capital between August 3 and August 28, it showed.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had on Friday said the recent increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Delhi was due to various reasons, including patients from outside seeking treatment here, return of migrants who left Delhi during lockdown as well as increased testing. Government data shows that of the 8,577 COVID-19 patients admitted to city hospitals in August, 2,536 belonged to other states — mostly from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

For example, of the 120 non-residents admitted to Delhi hospitals on August 28, as many as 64 belonged to Uttar Pradesh, while 39 were from Haryana.

In private hospitals, the number of COVID-19 patients from outside was more than those belonging to Delhi. Of the 98 patients admitted to BL Kapoor Hospital, 51 were from outside the city. Similarly, 111 out of 158 patients admitted to Apollo Hospital were not from Delhi.

Among the 395 people who succumbed to the viral disease between August 3 and August 28, as many as 210 (53 per cent) were from outside the national capital, according to the data.

The month's data collated till August 28 showed that around 900 hospital beds have been occupied so far.