New Delhi: The daily new cases continued to surge unabatedly on Friday. Delhi reported 8,521 fresh coronavirus cases, which was the second highest single-day infection count since the pandemic began. It was also the highest single-day spike this year. With this, the cumulative tally reached 7,06,526.
The highest single-day spike of 8,593 new coronavirus cases was recorded on November 11 last year. Before Friday, the city had recorded highest single-day spikes of this year in last few days. The figures continued to increase with each passing day. Delhi reported 7,437 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, 5,506 on Wednesday and 5,100 on Tuesday.
The number of new cases reported came out of 1,09,398 tests conducted on the previous day. At least 70,403 RTPCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat tests and 38,995 rapid antigen tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate slightly dropped to 7.79 per cent from 8.1 per cent on the previous day. The cumulative positivity rate increased to 4.6 per cent.
Thirty nine deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 11,196. On Thursday, 24 deaths were reported from the city.
The new cases exceeded the daily recoveries by a big margin in the last 24 hours. A total of 5,032 patients recovered from the deadly disease, taking the total recovery figure to 6,68,699 in the national capital. The active cases increased by 3,450 in the national capital. The total number of active cases rose to 26,631 from 23,181 a day before.
Out of the total 9,342 beds in coronavirus hospitals, 4,610 are vacant. The tally of people in home isolation jumped to 13,188 from 11,367 on Thursday.
As the cases continued to rise, the Delhi government on Friday announced closure of all the schools in the city till further orders. “Due to rising covid-19 cases, all government and private schools and all the classes will remain shut till further notice,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.
The government has also imposed several measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in the national capital, which includes, a night curfew, random checking at airport and restricting the number of events. The government has also ordered 115 private hospitals to reserve at least 50 per cent of their total ICU and wards bed exclusively for coronavirus patients.
