Delhi records 3,594 fresh COVID-19 cases; 14 deaths

Delhi recorded 3,594 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the highest daily count this year while 14 more people died due to the coronavirus infection. Meanwhile, India recorded 89,129 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike since September 2020.

New Delhi: Amid growing concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus, Delhi recorded 3,594 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the highest daily count this year while 14 more people died due to the coronavirus infection, taking the toll to 11,050, according to the health department.

The positivity rate also mounted to 4.11 per cent from 3.57 per cent a day before, amid a massive surge in cases in the span of the last few weeks.

On December 3, the city had recorded 3,734 cases while on December 4 the count was 4,067, according to official data.

Delhi had reported 2,790 cases on Thursday, and 1,819 coronavirus cases on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 2.71 per cent.

The number of cumulative cases on Friday stood at 6,68,814 and over 6.45 lakh patients have recovered from the virus. The city had recorded 992 cases on Tuesday, 1,904 cases on Monday and 1,881 cases on Sunday.

It had reported 1,558 cases on Saturday, 1,534 cases last Friday, 1,515 cases last Thursday, 1,254 cases a day before that and 1,101 cases last Tuesday, when it had crossed the 1,000-mark for the first time since December 24.

On December 8, last year, the city had recorded 3,188 cases and 2,706 on December 6. As per the latest bulletin, 14 more people died due to the disease, taking the toll to 11,050, it said.

The number of active cases rose to 11,994 from 10,498 a day before. A total of 87,505 tests, including 54,898 RT-PCR tests and 32,607 rapid antigen tests, were conducted a day ago, the bulletin said.

The number of people under home isolation rose to 6,106 from 5,598 a day ago. The containment zones rose to 2,338 from 2,183 on Thursday, it said.

The number of cumulative cases as on January 1 had stood at over 6.25 lakh and the total fatalities were 10,557. The number of daily cases had started to come down in February.

On February 26, the month's highest daily count of 256 cases was recorded. However, the daily cases began to rise again in March and have been steadily increasing since then.

Meanwhile, India recorded 89,129 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike since September 2020, taking the total tally to 1,23,92,260 on Saturday. The death toll increased to 1,64,110 with 714 new fatalities.

The country has been recording an unabated spike in cases for over three weeks.

Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Haryana are states of "grave concern".

(With inputs from agencies)