Delhi sees record 348 COVID-19 deaths, over 24K cases

Delhi logged 24,331 fresh COVID-19 cases and a record single-day jump of 348 deaths on Friday while the positivity rate stood at 32.43 per cent, according to the latest health bulletin.

The city has reported around 2,100 deaths due to the deadly virus in the last 11 days.

It had recorded 306 COVID deaths and 26,169 cases with a positivity rate of 36.24 per cent, the highest since the pandemic began a year ago, on Thursday. On Wednesday, 24,638 cases and 249 deaths were registered with a positivity rate of 31.28 per cent.

The capital had witnessed 28,395 cases, the highest single-day jump so far, with a positivity rate of 32.82 per cent on Tuesday. Authorities logged 306 deaths on Thursday, 249 on Wednesday, 277 on Tuesday, 240 on Monday, 161 on Sunday, and 167 on Saturday.

With the fresh cases, the national capital's cumulative tally climbed to 9,80,679 on Friday. The death toll stands at 13,541, the bulletin stated.

A total of 75,037 tests, including 43,711 RT-PCR tests, were conducted the previous day, it said.

The number of tests is significantly less than the average of around 90,000 tests a day being conducted in the capital. So far, over 8.75 lakh patients have recovered in Delhi, it added.

The number of active cases in the city increased to 92,029 from 91,618 on Thursday, the bulletin stated.

The number of people under home isolation increased to 48,502 from 46,585 on Thursday, while that of containment zones mounted to 23,561 from 22,000 the day before, it said.

Senior medical experts on Monday said the second wave of coronavirus in Delhi is likely to peak within a week after possibly hitting a positivity rate of 50 per cent before the numbers start to go down.