Delhi sees highest single-day spike at 5,673

Alok KN Mishra

New Delhi: The city on Wednesday recorded the highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic, with 5,673 cases in 24 hours. It is also for the first time that the 5,000-mark has been breached.

Aggressive testing, violation of social distancing norms and inappropriate wearing of masks beside the polluted air and change in weather are the factors being cited to explain the sudden increase. The festival crowds have, as anticipated, contributed to this surge.

Among the total number of people tested on Wednesday, 9.3% turned out to be positive, leading to 29,378 active cases in the capital.

It was as against 27,873 a day before. The city had reported 4853 cases a day before, which was highest till then, with the positivity rate at 8.48%.

The Delhi government is testing for Covid-19 quite aggressively now. The share of RT-PCR tests has been rising consistently with 17,284 being conducted on Wednesday. As compared to 42,637 rapid antigen tests conducted on Tuesday, 43,287 were conducted on Wednesday.