A total of 2,187 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Delhi in the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally of cases to 1,07,051, according to a health bulletin released by the Delhi government on Thursday. At the same time, 45 more deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours, which took the death toll to 3,258.
After the single-day entry almost touched 4,000 on June 23, it has been below 3,000 for the 13th consecutive day on Thursday. Of the total cases, 82,226 people have recovered and there are 21,567 active cases.
Though the total cases in Delhi have been increasing, the active cases have been constantly decreasing for the past seven days from July 1, except for July 6, when there was an increase. The number of active cases was 27,007 on July 1 and has decreased by 5,440 to reach 21,567 on Thursday.
Rapid testing
All Delhi government-run dispensaries and polyclinics will be conducting rapid antigen tests for people with influenza-like illness (ILI) symptoms and asymptomatic persons, who are direct and high-risk contacts of a positive case, according to an order issued on Thursday.
“In continuation of various measures undertaken by Govt. of NCT of Delhi to augment COVID-19 testing and to ensure that it is more accessible, it has been decided that rapid antigen detection tests will be offered by all Delhi government dispensaries and Polyclinics from 9 a.m. to 12 noon on all working days to all eligible individuals [as per annexure]. This comes into effect immediately,” the order read.
The order said that with nearly 2,500 cases being reported each day, there are expected to be at least seven-eight direct and high-risk contacts of a COVID-19 positive person at home and workplace.
“Aggressive contact tracing and testing holds the key to ensure that infection is controlled in its tracks effectively. This effectively means that we consistently need to test at least 20,000 people each day. Since the contacts can be in any part of the city depending on the movement of the patient. The testing facility will be made available at all identified dispensaries/polyclinics between 9 a.m. and 12 noon on all working days,” it said.
