The national capital Delhi saw its daily new Covid-19 infection tally on Wednesday surge to 5,506, the highest daily count this year. This was much higher than the 5,100 new cases seen the previous day. Currently, Delhi has the fifth-highest tally of Covid-19 cases.

What is worrying is that the case positivity rate has now shot up to 6.10 per cent (well above the 5 per cent mark), clearly raising concerns that the infection is getting out of control. Test positivity rate is the number of positive cases from those tested for the infection.

As many as 20 fatalities were reported for Wednesday, higher than 17 deaths in the previous day. About 90,201 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours running up to Wednesday, data released in the Bulletin of Delhi Health department showed. The death toll in the city has reached 11,133.

Tuesday saw a record 1.03 lakh tests conducted, including 69,667 RT-PCR and 33,786 rapid antigen tests. On Tuesday, the case positivity rate stood at 4.93 per cent, lower than 5.54 per cent in the previous day.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that the government is escalating the number of beds in the hospitals. In the last three days, more than 2,000 beds have been added, and in the next 2-3 days, an additional 2,000-2,500 will be increased, he said.

Jain said that Covid-19 has lasted for more than a year, and the most effective way to curb the infection is to wear a mask and follow the protocol of sanitisation and social distancing.

He noted that night curfew had been imposed in Delhi to avoid unnecessary crowds that could cause the virus to spread. Jain maintained that curfew could only be a temporary measure and set to tackle the rising cases.

“There were reports about parties, which cause unnecessary gatherings, and people are in close contact there. Hence the night curfew is aimed to avoid this situation because if even one is positive among the 50 people attending the party, all 50 test positive”, he said.

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