COVID cases see fresh surge in Delhi, doctors urge people to follow norms

NEW DELHI:  Covid-19 cases in the capital are once again witnessing a surge. In the last three days, the city’s infection count has increased by 100 patients. On Friday, Delhi recorded 256 new cases, the highest number of single-day incidents in February, according to data shared by the city health department. The positivity rate of Covid- 19 infection has risen to 0.41 per cent.

This is the third successive day when daily cases have reached 200 or gone over that mark. On Thursday, 220 cases were registered. On Wednesday, this count stood at 200. On all preceding days, from February 1-23, the count of daily cases was below 200. Doctors warned on Friday that the numbers could go up in the coming months and urged people to continue to wear masks and follow Covid-19 safety norms.

There were 62,768 samples collected, of which 41, 775 were through the RT-PCR method and the rest from rapid antigen tests. Delhi had recorded 94 fresh Covid-19 cases on February 16, the lowest in over nine months. On January 27, this figure was 96, the first time the daily cases had come down to under 100. One more death was recorded in Friday’s health bulletin that pushed the fatality tally to 10,906.

In February, the city saw no patient succumbing to the virus for three days, as per the government bulletin. No Covid- 19-related death was recorded in Delhi on February 17, the third time that the daily fatality count read zero this month. On February 9, too, no fatality was registered, for the first time after nearly nine months. No death from Covid-19 was recorded on February 13 as well.

Currently, the tally of active cases stands at 1,231 of which 574 are in home isolation. On the other hand, over 3.6 lakh beneficiaries have received vaccines in Delhi since the start of the inoculation drive. More than 18,900 people received the jabs on Thursday.