Coronavirus | COVID-19 death toll nears 6,000 mark

Govt. says 35 new fatalities reported in the past 24 hours

October 18, 2020 12:08 am | Updated 03:03 am IST - New Delhi

People get tested for COVID-19  near Mahindra Park in  Delhi.

People get tested for COVID-19 near Mahindra Park in Delhi.

The city on Saturday recorded 3,259 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, according to a health bulletin released by the government. This is the fifth consecutive day that the Capital has recorded over 3,000 new cases.

The death toll has reached 5,981 with 35 more fatalities reported in a single day, said the bulletin.

Of the total 3,27,718 cases, 2,98,853, people have recovered and there are now 22,884 active cases.

RT-PCR tests increase

A total of 55,715 COVID-19 tests were done in the past 24 hours, out of which 15,537 were RT-PCR tests.

This is the second day in a row where more than 15,000 RT-PCR tests have been conducted. Friday had seen the highest number of such tests till now with 15,660 RT-PCR tests.

The High Court had directed the Delhi government to increase the number of RT PCR tests, which is considered as the gold standard when it comes to COVID-19 testing.

Meanwhile, the number of active cases increased for the fifth consecutive day, and the people under home isolation for the fourth straight day.

But the number of people in hospitals slightly decreased on Saturday.

Out of the total 15,706 beds available for COVID-19 treatment in the city, 67.9% were vacant, as per government data. But 54.6% of the ICU beds with ventilators have been occupied and 55.6% of the ICU beds without ventilators are full.

The positivity rate (percentage of people testing positive for every 100 tests done) was 5.8%. The overall positivity rate till now is 8.3%. The number of containment zones in the city on Saturday was 2,751.

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