Delhi records highest single-day spike of 4,473 coronavirus cases

Delhi registered a record single-day spike of 4,473 Covid-19 cases, taking the city's infection tally to over 230,000, while 33 more deaths were reported, authorities said

Delhi registered a record single-day spike of 4,473 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the city'sinfection tally to over 2.3 lakh, while 33 more deaths were reported, authorities said.

The previous highest single-day spike of 4,321 cases was recorded on September 12.

The city's COVID-19 tally has reached 2,30,269 and the death toll mounted to 4,839, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

Four of the 33 new deaths reported on Wednesday are from the previous day, it said.

On Tuesday, Delhi's death toll from COVID-19 stood at 4,806.

The active cases on Wednesday rose to 30,914 from 29,787 on the previous day, the bulletin said.

The number of containment zones in Delhi jumped to 1,637 on Wednesday from 1,560 on Tuesday.

There has been an increase of 45 per cent in the number of containment zones in the national capital in the last 10 days, while home isolation cases have jumped to 16,576 over the same period, according to official data.

To further augment the availability of beds forCOVID-19 patients in Delhi, the city government has decided to declareDDU Hospital and BSA Hospital partially designated COVID hospitals for admitting confirmed and suspected cases.

Medical directors and superintendents of the two hospitals are directed to convert 100 beds each in their hospitals into designated COVID wards by September 19, the government said in a September 15 order.

The Delhi government has also significantly ramped up testing in the past few days.

The number of tests conducted and corresponding fresh cases reported from September 1-15 in that order are: 24,198 (2,312); 28,835 (2,509); 32,834 (2,737); 36,219 (2,914) 38,895 (2,973); 36,046 (3,256); 22,954 (2,077); 45,797 (3,609); 54,517 (4,039); 58,340 (4,308); 60,580 (4,266); 60,076 (4,321); 56,656 (4,235); 44,884 (3,229) and 62,669 (4,263).

On Wednesday, over 4,000 cases were recorded for 62,593 tests conducted the previous day.

The number of rapid-antigen tests conducted on Monday stood at 51,318, while the RT-PCR, CBNAAT and True NAAT tests figures were 11,275 in all adding to 62,593, according to the bulletin.

As on Wednesday, the number of tests done per million was over 1,21,556 while the total number of tests stood at 23,09,578.

The positivity rate is 7.15 per cent, up from 6.8 per cent the previous day, while the recovery rate is 84.47 per cent, the bulletin said, adding that the case fatality rate stands at 2.1 per cent.

Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, along with district magistrates, reviewed COVID-19 management in a meeting, according to the bulletin.

Since August 18, cases in the city have been coming in the four-figure count. According to the bulletin, out of the total number of 14,521 beds in COVID hospitals, 6,783 are vacant.

It said 2,736 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned under the Vande Bharat Mission and by bubble flights.

The bulletin said 1,94,516 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far.

The number of people in home isolation stands at 17,324.