Tuesday's single-day Delhi cases were highest since June 25, when it had 3,390 cases. (Representational)
Over 45,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours for the first time in the national capital, which recorded 3,609 fresh coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the highest single-day spike in 76 days, taking the tally to over 1.97 lakh, authorities said.
According to the Delhi government latest health bulletin, the deaths mounted to 4,618, after 19 more fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours.
Tuesday's single-day casecount was the highest since June 25, when the national capital had recorded 3,390 cases.
On June 23, Delhi had recorded the highest single-day spike of 3,947 cases so far. The figure on Tuesday also surpassed Sunday's figure when the national capital had recorded 3,256 cases.
Amid the surge in cases, Health minister Satyendar Jain told PTI that the sharp spike in COVID-19 cases will "plateau" after 10 days or so, and asserted that home isolation policy has proved a "game changer" in taming the surge, a strategy the city government will continue to pursue.
The minister said there was no need to panic, and added that "the current situation is far better than in June" when the city witnessed a big wave of infections.
"One of the main reasons why we are seeing such a rise in the number of fresh cases is because we are going aggressive as far as testing is concerned. We have been conducting tests in markets, crowded places, mohalla clinics, hospitals, and many other places," he said.
A record number of 45,000 tests -- 9,944 RTPCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat and 35,853 rapid antigen tests-- were conducted in the last 24 hours.
The Delhi government has significantly ramped up testing in the past few days. Barring August 31, when over 14,000 tests were conducted and 1,358 fresh cases reported, since August 30, daily cases count has been recorded in excess of 2,000.
Even on September 7, the number of tests conducted was 22,954, while the single-day spike was 2,077.
The number of tests conducted and corresponding fresh cases reported from August 30-September 6 in that order are: 14,389 (1,358); 20,437 (2,024); 24,198 (2,312); 28,835 (2,509); 32,834 (2,737); 36,219 (2,914) and 38,895 (2,973), 36,046 (3,256).
The tally of cases in the national capital rose to 1,97,135, of which 1,70,140 patients have either recovered, been discharged or migrated out. The number of active cases stands at 22,377, up from 20,543 the previous day, the bulletin said.
The positivity rate stood at 7.8 per cent in the last 24 hours while the recovery rate was 86.30 per cent, it said.
The cumulative positivity rate stands at 10.66 per cent while the case fatality rate stood at 2.34 per cent.
The number of containment zones stands at 1,166, up from 1,114 the previous day. Since August 18, cases again have been coming in four-figure count, according to data.
According to the bulletin, out of the total 14,202 beds in COVID hospitals, 8,788 are vacant.
Also, 2,731 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned through the Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights, it said.
As many as 11,742 people are in home isolation, it said.
The total number of tests done till date in Delhi stands at 18,49,263. The number of tests done per million, as on Tuesday, was 97,329, it said.
Jain also held a meeting with Medical Directors/Medical Superintendents of all Delhi government hospitals to review the status of testing.
Delhi chief secretary also held a review meeting with all the District magistrates on COVID-19 management.
The national capital had recorded 2,077 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking the tally to over 1.93 lakh, while the number of deaths mounted to 4,599.