Delhi sees 2,495 new coronavirus cases, 7 fatalities

New Delhi: Delhi logged seven fresh fatalities due to coronavirus infection, highest in nearly 180 days, while the single day infections rose to 2,495, according to the health department data shared on Tuesday.

It was on February 13 that the city had reported 12 deaths due to the viral disease.

The new coronavirus cases were the highest in 180 days, while the positivity rate stood at 15.41 per cent.

The city on February 3 had recorded 2,668 cases and 13 fatalities.

Amid a spike in cases over the last week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said Covid cases are on the rise in Delhi, but there is no need to panic as most of the new cases were mild in nature.

The national capital saw 1,372 infections and six deaths as the case positivity rate rose to 17.85 per cent, the highest since January 21, it said.

The figures pertain to August 7 (Sunday) as the government did not release the daily health bulletin on Monday.

On January 21, the positivity rate stood at 18.04 per cent.

The fresh cases on Tuesday came out of 16,187 COVID-19 tests, the health department bulletin stated.

With the fresh infections and fatalities, Delhi's caseload increased to 19,73,394 and the death toll to 26,343, it said.

Delhi had reported 2,423 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 14.97 per cent and two deaths, the data updated on Sunday said.

On Saturday, it recorded 2,311 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 13.84 per cent and one fatality.

On Friday, it logged 2,419 cases with a positivity rate of 12.95 per cent, while two people died due to the disease.

On Thursday, the city saw 2,202 cases with a positivity rate of 11.84 per cent and four deaths.

On Wednesday, Delhi recorded 2,073 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 11.64 per cent and five fatalities.

On June 25, six people succumbed to the disease.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Delhi stand at 8,506, up from 7,484 previous day. As many as 5,504 patients are in home isolation, the bulletin said.

Of the 9,409 beds reserved for COVID-19 patients in various Delhi hospitals, 534 were occupied. Beds at Covid care centres and Covid health centres were lying vacant, it said.

Despite the rise in the positivity rate, the city government is not implementing the graded response action plan (GRAP) devised by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority since the hospital admissions are low.

The GRAP came into force in August last year, stipulating measures to be taken by the government in accordance with the positivity rate and bed occupancy for locking and unlocking of various activities.

There are 253 containment zones in the city, it added.

The Delhi government has directed district magistrates to ensure that Covid-appropriate behaviour is followed, even as experts have said people becoming carefree towards maintaining social distancing norms was behind the recent spike in coronavirus cases in the capital.

The government has directed DMs of 11 revenue districts to increase drives to issue challans in case people are not following social distancing norms, officials said.

The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi had touched the record high of 28,867 on January 13 this year during the third wave of the pandemic.

The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the third wave of the pandemic.