Covid cases hit a new daily peak of 4.3k

Gurgaon: As many 4,319 people tested positive for Covid-19 in Gurgaon on Thursday, in what is so far the district’s sharpest single-day spike in cases.
The active cases tally breached the 20,000 mark to climb to 20,760, of which 19,667 patients are in home isolation. With this, Gurgaon’s overall Covid tally reached 96,738. According to official data, Friday’s positivity rate stood at a staggering 35%, with a little over 12,000 tests done. The weekly positivity rate is 26%. The chief medical officer said Gurgaon described the situation as an “emergency”.
Nine people succumbed to the virus on Friday, taking the toll to 410. At present, the case fatality rate is 0.4%.
The scramble for hospital beds continued on Friday as the surge kept the city’s medical infrastructure under intense pressure. According to official data, only eight oxygen beds and four beds each in the ICU and ventilator categories for Covid patients were available in Gurgaon on Friday.
“The cases will continue to rise in Gurgaon. At present, we are witnessing an emergency. More than 19,000 patients are in home isolation and we have more than 20,000 active cases,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurgaon. The health department said 1,670 patients recovered on Friday, taking the total number of recoveries to 75,568. The recovery rate stands at 78%.
Ninety people were sent to an institutional quarantine facility on Friday. In the past 24 hours, the health authorities collected 12,028 samples for antigen and RT-PCR tests. A total of 1,980 Covid patients were in hospitals (severe cases), 798 in Covid care centres (moderate cases) and 205 in district Covid care centres (mild cases) as of Friday.