 "Covid-19: Delhi cases at 6,725, daily tally crosses 6,000-mark for 1st time")
Delhi recorded over 6,700 fresh COVID-19 cases for the first time on Tuesday, taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 4 lakh, even as the positivity rate stood at11.29 per cent amid the festive season and rising pollution in the city.
The 6,725 fresh cases came out of the 59,540 tests conducted the previous day.
This is the first time when the number of daily cases has crossed the 6000-mark.
The previous highest single-day spike till date here -- 5,891 cases -- was recorded on Friday.
Forty-eight new fatalities were recorded, pushing the death toll in the national capital to 6,652, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.
Delhi had recorded over 5,000 daily cases for five days on the trot, ending Sunday when the count stood at 5,664.
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The city recorded 4,001 COVID-19 cases on Monday with the positivity rate hovering around 11 per cent. The Centre had attributed the sudden surge in daily incidences in the last few days to greater movement of people during the festive season and laxity in adhering to safety norms.
The active cases tally on Tuesday stood at 36,375, as per the bulletin.
The bulletin said that the total number of cases has climbed to 4,03,096, and the positivity rate stood at 11.29 per cent.
The number of containment zones in Delhi increased to 3,453 from 3,416 on Monday.
The sudden spike in cases comes amid the festive season and rising pollution level. While Durga Puja celebrations ended on October 25, the next festival is Diwali and Chhath in November.
The National Centre for Disease Control in a report drafted recently had warned thatDelhi needs to be prepared for about 15,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 per day taking into account winter season-related respiratory problems, large influx of patients from outside and festive gatherings.
The the recovery rate on Saturday was over 89 per cent, the bulletin said.
According to the Saturday bulletin, out of the total number of 15,823 beds in COVID hospitals, 9,025 are vacant.
It said that 565 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights.
The Delhi government has significantly ramped up testing in the past few days.
The number of Rapid Antigen Tests conducted on Monday stood at 45,980 while the RT-PCR, CBNAAT and True NAAT tests figures were 13,560 in all adding to 59,540, according to the bulletin.
The number of tests done per million, as on Monday was over 2.53 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 48 lakh.
The bulletin said that 3,60,069 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far.
Since September, daily cases had begun to rise in the city. From the last week of September, it had started to come down a bit.
The number of people in home isolation dropped to 21,521 compared to 21,634 the previous day.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)