Delhi records August's highest single-day spike of 1,840 COVID-19 cases; death toll 4,369

Delhi recorded 1,840 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest single-day spike in August in the city, taking the tally to over 1.67 lakh, while the death toll mounted to 4,369, authorities said.

This is the third successive highest single-day spike this month.

This is also the highest single-day spike in the national capital in the last nearly 50 days.

Twenty-two fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi Health department.

On Wednesday, 17 deaths were reported and the count of daily cases was 1,693, the previous highest single-day spike in August.

On June 23, the national capital had reported the highest single-day spike of 3,947 till date.

The active cases tally on Thursday rose to 13,208 from 12,520 the previous day.  The death toll from COVID-19 in Delhi stood at 4,347 on Wednesday.

The bulletin on Thursday said the death toll from coronavirus infection has risen to 4,369 and the total number of cases has climbed to 1,67,604.  The positivity rate on Thursday stood at 8.7 per cent while the recovery rate was over 89 per cent, as per the bulletin.

Also, on Thursday, the number of containment zones jumped to 734 from 716 the previous day, according to the bulletin.

Fresh cases and active cases have shown an increase in the last several days.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said COVID-19 tests in Delhi will be doubled to 40,000 per day within a week as there has been a marginal increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the city.

Delhi has seen a fluctuation in the number of coronavirus cases since the beginning of this month.

On August 1, the city recorded 1,118 fresh cases while for the next three days, the number of infections reported in a single-day stayed below the 1,000-mark.

From August 5 to August 9, the number of fresh COVID-19 cases again stayed above the 1,000-mark only to come down to 707 on August 10.

Three days between August 11 and August 22, the city saw less than 1,000 fresh cases -- August 13 (956), August 16 (652), and August 17 (787).  According to the bulletin, out of the total number of beds in COVID hospitals, 10,321 are vacant.

Also, 4,213 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights, it said.

According to the bulletin, 1,50,027 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far.

The number of people in home isolation stands at 6,596.

The number of Rapid Antigen Tests conducted on Thursday stood at 14,018 while the RT-PCR, CBNAAT and True NAAT tests figures were 7,943, according to the bulletin.

The total number of tests done till date in Delhi stands at 15,03,722.

The number of tests done per million, as on Thursday, was 79,143, it said.