New Delhi: The health department said in a bulletin on Thursday that the national capital recorded 7 deaths due to COVID-19 for the second consecutive day in the last 24 hours. Seven people died in the national capital on Wednesday as well, which is the highest number of deaths so far this year.
Besides this, according to the bulletin, the national capital has also reported 865 fresh COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, marginally lower than 1,040 cases on Wednesday. With the fresh cases and deaths, the total case load in the national capital mounted to 20,37,061 while the toll rose to 26,620. Besides this, as per the bulletin, a total of 5,117 samples were tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, while 1,287 patients recovered from the infection.
However, the city’s positivity rate dropped from 21.16 per cent to 16.90 per cent in the last 24 hours. The number of active cases in the national capital stood at 4,708, the bulletin further stated, out of which 305 patients are currently undergoing treatment in hospitals.
Amid rising Covid cases, medical experts had earlier warned that the new XBB1.16 variant is capable of defeating the immune system. Amid the gradual increase in COVID-19 cases in several states, mock drills were conducted on April 10 and 11 in a total of 33,685 health facilities, including 28,050 government facilities and 5,635 private health facilities.
Earlier this month, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that lawyers were free to appear in court virtually in view of rising Covid cases. Taking note of news reports suggesting a spike in Covid infections, the CJI said lawyers were free to attend court proceedings virtually or switch to hybrid mode of work, if they so wished.
There were 9,355 new coronavirus cases in India on Thursday, while the active cases dropped to 57,410, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The death toll has risen to 5,31,424 with 26 deaths, the data said.