New Delhi:
The national capital recorded 1,118 fresh coronavirus cases, and 26 deaths due to the disease in the last 24 hours, authorities said on Saturday.
The city has so far recorded a total of 1,36,716 cases, of which 1,22,131 have recovered, been discharged or migrated.
There are 10,596 active cases, of which 5,560 are under home isolation.
The death toll due to the disease is 3,989, according to the latest Delhi health department bulletin.
As many as 5,140 RTPCR tests and 13,014 rapid-antigen tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. A total of 10,50,939 tests have been conducted till date — 55,312 tests per million population, it said.
In the last one week, the number of new infections has grown by less than one per cent everyday.
The recovery rate has increased to more than 89 per cent.
-Delhi Police head constable succumbs to COVID-19-
A Delhi Police head constable has died due to novel coronavirus at a hospital, officials said on Saturday.
Leela Dhar, who was posted at the Defence Colony police station, died on Friday.
Dhar had reported about mild fever on July 11. He was taken to Nehru Homeopathic College and Hospital, where he had tested positive for COVID-19, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said.
He was later admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital. He was shifted to ICU on July 19 and was given plasma therapy. On Friday, Dhar passed away, the DCP said.
More than 2,500 Delhi Police personnel have been infected with COVID-19 so far. Of these, more than 2,100 have recovered and resumed their duties, while over a dozen succumbed to the disease, police said.
-Second round of sero survey begins in Delhi-
The second round of sero-prevalence survey began in the national capital on Saturday, with the five-day exercise set to cover all districts and various demographic segments.
The exercise is being undertaken for a comprehensive assessment of the COVID-19 situation in Delhi.
The survey has begun and samples will be collected from four districts, including North Delhi and Northwest Delhi, to start with on Saturday.
A senior government official said 15,000 samples would be collected from August 1 to 5 as part of the exercise, spanning different areas and age groups. Representative samples will be taken from all the 11 districts.
A sero-prevalence survey involves testing the blood serum of individuals to check for the prevalence of antibodies against infection.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on July 22 had announced that after analysing the results of the last survey, it was decided that more such exercises would be undertaken every month to formulate better policies for tackling the COVID-19 situation in the city.
The last sero-prevalence survey was conducted by the Delhi government in association with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) from June 27 to July 10. The second round would follow the same protocol as that was for the last survey, officials said.
The Delhi health department has prepared a detailed plan under which every district medical officer has been asked to conduct the survey in their respective jurisdictions, they said.
All CDMOs have been tasked with carrying out the survey in their districts. Random people will be tested for antibodies.
The last sero-prevalance survey had found that around 23 per cent of the people surveyed had been exposed to the novel coronavirus, the central government had said.
The previous study had tested 21,387 samples.
The Delhi government had decided to conduct more monthly sero surveys to find a greater percentage of such people who had got infected and recovered so as to formulate better policies for tackling COVID-19, Jain had said.
