Delhi logs over 24,000 new COVID-19 cases in record single-day spike, 8,27,998 in total

Delhi has recorded over 24,000 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, which is the highest single-day surge in the national capital till date, according to the health department on Saturday.

A day before, the national capital reported 19,486 corona cases and 141 deaths.

The national capital reported 24,375 new cases and 167 deaths. There are currently 69,799 active cases in Delhi.

With the fresh surge, Delhi's COVID-19 count now stands at 8,27,998, including 7,46,239 recoveries while the death toll stands at 11,960.

As many as 99,230 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, including 69,206 RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat tests and 30,024 rapid antigen tests. A positivity rate of 24.56 per cent has been reported, while tests per million count stands at 8,49,599.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had flagged a shortage of oxygen and an anti-viral drug Remdesivir. After a meeting with Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Kejriwal had informed that Delhi has a limited number of ICU beds, and oxygen and ICU beds are decreasing very sharply.

"We are taking several steps to scale up beds capacity...I hope that we add 6,000 beds in two or three days. No one knows when the peak will come. The Central government gave 4,100 beds in November but this time only 1,800 beds have been given. I requested Dr Harsh Vardhan to reserve 50 per cent beds for COVID patients," he said.

"We are informed that hospitals, especially private hospitals in Delhi are facing a shortage of oxygen. I have requested for an immediate supply of oxygen to Delhi. I also requested the supply of Remdesivir drug," the Chief Minister added.

India is currently witnessing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and is reporting the sharpest growth rate of 7.6 per cent in new COVID-19 cases, the health ministry informed. A sharp growth of 10.2 per cent in the number of deaths caused by the virus has also been reported.

India recorded the highest-ever single-day spike of COVID-19 cases on Saturday with over 2.34 lakh new cases and more than 1,300 deaths in 24 hours, which was also the highest number of daily new cases reported in the world.

( With inputs from ANI )