Delhi Reports 412 Deaths In Biggest Single-Day Surge In Covid Fatalities

Delhi yet again reported an all-time record surge in its fatalities on a single day due to COVID-19 with 412 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the latest bulletin issued by the city health department. The city reported 25,219 infections in the same period - a marginal fall from the number of cases reported yesterday - with a positivity rate of 31.61 per cent, it said.

This is the tenth day on the trot that the national capital has recorded over 300 coronavirus-related deaths.

Delhi on Friday recorded 375 deaths and 27,047 fresh COVID-19 cases.

The grim figure comes on the day 12 people, including a doctor, died in the national capital's Batra hospital after the facility ran out of oxygen.

At a hearing on Saturday, the Delhi high court took note of the deaths at the Hospital and told the Centre to make arrangements for the allocated supply of oxygen to be given to Delhi. "Enough is enough," said the court.

The city's hospitals have been overwhelmed, with lethal shortages of beds, drugs and oxygen with many people dying outside hospitals without treatment.

The Delhi government has also announced that it will extend for another seven days a lockdown it first imposed for a week on April 19 which was subsequently extended by a week on April 25. The current shutdown had been due to expire on Monday but was extended as the number of cases is still rising fast in the city.

"Lockdown in Delhi is being extended by one week," Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Twitter.

The cumulative case count in Delhi stands at 11,74,552, of which over 10.61 lakh have recovered.