Over the past four days, the number of fresh cases has been rising in the city, after they dropped below 100 for two consecutive days. (Representational)

Cases in Delhi went up by over two-and-a-half times in a day, as the city saw 293 fresh cases on Sunday. No one succumbed to the disease. Delhi’s total COVID-19 count now stands at 2,918.

The percentage of people testing positive against the number of tests conducted — 3,518 -— was 8.3% on Sunday. The highest in the past week was 9.2% on Wednesday, when 92 out of 995 people tested positive.

Over the past four days, the number of fresh cases has been rising in the city, after they dropped below 100 for two consecutive days. The cumulative number of deaths this week, though, has been lower than the previous week. “While 566 people were admitted to hospitals last week, only 34 people were admitted this week. The recovery rate has also doubled during this week, with 580 people recovering as against 260 people last week. This is a good sign as the number of people who have recovered has doubled” said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The Delhi government, on a trial basis, has been treating serious patients using plasma therapy.

The therapy is still at the stage of trial but doctors said they had seen encouraging results. “The body starts producing antibodies to fight the virus in a few days of being infected. People can donate blood after three weeks of recovering. Plasma containing antibodies is isolated from the blood, which is returned to the donor’s body. One person can donate plasma once in 10 days. One person’s plasma can be used for one-two people,” said an official.

At Lok Nayak Hospital, where 165 patients are admitted — 14 in ICU — the therapy is being tried on four people. Sources said six more patients who are in serious condition will be put on the therapy. At AIIMS Jhajjar, too, where 105 patients are admitted, doctors are planning to do trials.

“Plasma therapy is showing positive results as of now. I am monitoring each patient. One of the patients at Lok Nayak Hospital yesterday was sinking. After plasma therapy, his health has improved; it has also boosted our confidence and enthusiasm regarding plasma therapy. I hope he will recover soon,” said Kejriwal.

While 54 people have died in the city so far, nine died this week (till April 26) as opposed to 21 in the previous week.

“If we follow lockdown rules, I sincerely hope we will be able to defeat this pandemic… The pattern of cases doubling or tripling in a short while has been observed across the world, but something like this was not observed here. Our aim is that there should be no more deaths due to Corona,” said the CM.