COVID: Delhi records 5,739 cases, highest single-day spike

Delhi recorded 5,739 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest single-day spike till date, as the infection tally in the city mounted to over 3.75 lakh, authorities said.

This is the second consecutive day when over 5,000 cases have been reported in a day in the city. The previous highest single-day spike of 5,673 cases was recorded on Wednesday.

According to the latest health department bulletin, the positivity rate has also jumped to 9.55 per cent, amid the festive season and the rise in pollution level.

Twenty-seven new fatalities were recorded, pushing the death toll in the national capital to 6,423, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

The 5,739 fresh cases came out of the 60,124 tests conducted the previous day.

The active cases tally on Thursday rose to 30,952 from 29,378 the previous day, as per the bulletin.

The bulletin said that the total number of cases has climbed to 3,75,753.

The number of containment zones in Delhi increased to 3,113 from 3,047 on Wednesday.

Amid a staggering spike in cases of COVID-19 here, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday said the city government has changed its strategy and now going for "aggressive tracing and testing" of people who came in contact with those found positive for the infection, attributing it as one of the factors behind surge in cases.

Interacting with reporters, he also said it would be too early to say if this was a "third wave" in surge in fresh cases.

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.

Delhi has been witnessing a rise in pollution the last few days.

The National Centre for Disease Control in a report drafted recently had warned 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.

Meanwhile, Union health secretary took a meeting with senior officers of health and revenue departments of the Delhi government on COVID-19 management.

Milling crowd in the festive season, increase in pollution level and laxity in behaviour by many people in observing COVID-19 safety norms have led to a massive surge in daily cases in the last few days in the national capital, experts said on Thursday.

The recovery rate on Wednesday was over 90 per cent, the bulletin said.

According to the Thursday bulletin, out of the total number of 15,749 beds in COVID hospitals, 9,895 are vacant.

It said that 456 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by the Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights.

The 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 Wednesday stood at 43,095 while the RT-PCR, CBNAAT and True NAAT tests figures were 17,029 in all adding to 60,124, according to the bulletin.

The number of tests done per million, as on Wednesday, was over 2.4 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 45.7 lakh.

The bulletin said that 3,38,378 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 rose to 18,069 compared to 16,822 the previous day.