 "Coronavirus, covid, tests")
The national capital recorded 48 more COVID-19 fatalities on Saturday, taking the death toll to 5,740, while 2,866 fresh cases took the infection tally to over 3.06 lakh, authorities said.
On September 29 as well, 48 fatalities were reported in the city, the highest number of deaths recorded in a day since July 16, when Delhi saw 58 fatalities.
The 2,866 fresh cases came out of the 49,736 tests conducted the previous day.
Forty-eight more fatalities have been recorded, taking the death toll to 5,740, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.
The tally of active cases on Saturday rose to 22,007 from 21,955 the previous day.
The total number of cases has climbed to 3,06,559, the bulletin added.
The number of containment zones in Delhi slightly dropped to 2,715 from 2,727 on Friday.
The positivity rate on Saturday stood at 5.76 per cent while the recovery rate crossed 90 per cent, the bulletin said, adding that the case fatality rate stood at 1.87 per cent.
Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday saidDelhi government has ordered shifting of COVID-19 patients from North Corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital to its own facilities, days after the resident doctors went on a "symbolic indefinite strike" over their due salaries for the last three months.
He also told reporters that in the last nine days, daily cases count have remained below 3,000 per day.
Asked about the report by experts that cautions that Delhi needs to be prepared for about 15,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 per day taking into account the upcoming winter season-related respiratory problems, large influx of patients from outside and festive gatherings, he said, "I would neither comment on it nor contest it".
The report drafted by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) under the guidance of the expert group under the chairmanship of NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr V K Paul has recommended that the Delhi government should make arrangements for hospitalisation of about one-fifth of these patients with moderate and severe disease.
"It is a hypothetical situation, and I can only say, as of now less cases are coming and we have sufficient beds. When the situation arises, we will step up our measures accordingly," Jain said.
According to the bulletin, out of the total number of 16,114 beds in COVID hospitals, 10,811 are vacant.
It said 1,021 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights.
Delhi government has significantly ramped up testing in the past few days, with the count on several times crossing the 60,000-mark.
The number of Rapid Antigen Tests conducted on Friday stood at 39,352 while the RT-PCR, CBNAAT and True NAAT tests figures were 10,384, in all adding to 49,736, according to the bulletin.
The number of tests done per million, as on Saturday, was over 1.88 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 35 lakh.
The bulletin said 2,78,812 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 has stated to come down a bit.
The number of people in home isolation slightly rose to 12,614 on Saturday compared to 12,609 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.)
