The city reported 8,521 fresh COVID-19 cases in 24 hours — the second-highest daily spike since the beginning of the pandemic —, taking the total number of cases to 7,06,526, according to a health bulletin released by the Delhi government on Friday.
The highest number of daily new cases reported in Delhi since the beginning of the pandemic was 8,593 cases on November 11. It also reported 39 deaths were reported in 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths to 11,196. A total of 1,09,398 tests were done in a day, the bulletin said. Of the total cases, 6,68,699 people have recovered and there are 26,631 active cases.
The positivity stood at 7.79% on Friday and the overall positivity till now was 4.6%, as per the bulletin.
Also, the Delhi government will start the sixth serological survey from Monday to understand how much of the population has developed antibodies against the virus, officials said. The sample collection will go on till April 25 and 28,000 samples are expected to be collected.
Only COVID-19 treatment
All non-COVID-19 services have been suspended at Delhi government-run Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) till further orders, said Deputy Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Namrata Makkar.
The decision was taken due to a spike in cases in the city and a gradual increase of COVID-19 patients admitted at RGSSH, a hospital official said.
“We don’t have enough manpower to manage both COVID and non-COVID patients. Currently, there are about 170 COVID patients admitted at the hospital,” the official said.