New Delhi:
Delhi recorded 716 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest daily count this year, while four more people died from the pathogen, the Health Department said. The number of active cases rose to 3,165 from 2,924 a day ago and 6.32 lakh people have recovered so far. The positivity rate jumped to 0.93 per cent from 0.76 per cent, according to a bulletin.
The 716 new cases took the tally to 6,46,348, while the toll rose to 10,953 with four more deaths, the bulletin said.
Delhi had reported 607 and 536 cases on Thursday and Wednesday respectively. The daily count was 425 on Tuesday.
A total of 77,352 tests, including 47,078 RT-PCR, were conducted on Thursday and the number of people under home isolation rose to 1,624, it said.
Health experts and doctors have attributed the surge in cases to people turning complacent, not following COVID-appropriate behaviour and ”assuming all is well now”.
A total of 585 cases were reported on January 1 and 424 on January 3. The daily count had dropped to 306 on January 11 and risen again to 386 on January 12, according to official figures.
The numbers had started to come down in February. On February 26, the month’s highest daily count of 256 cases was recorded.
Asserting that the recent rise in cases was not a cause for worry, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced on Thursday that the number of people vaccinated in Delhi each day would be raised from around 40,000 to 1.25 lakh.
He added that the Delhi government had directed officials for stricter tracking, tracing and isolation of cases. PTI
