COVID-19 in Delhi: Health Minister to hold emergency meet as cases reach 300 for first time in 6 months

Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj will hold an emergency meeting with specialist doctors, health department officials, and directors of several hospitals on Thursday afternoon, news agency PTI reported citing officials. The development came after COVID-19 cases in the national capital touched the 300 mark for the first time in six months. Delhi reported 377 cases on August 31 last year along with two deaths whereas the positivity rate stood at 2.58 per cent at the time.

According to a Delhi Health Department bulletin on Wednesday, the national capital currently has 806 active COVID cases with an infection rate of 13.89 per cent. As many as 2,160 swab tests were conducted over last 24 hours, of which 300 tested positive. With these fresh cases, Delhi’s total COVID-19 caseload stands at 20,09,361 whereas the death count remains at 26,526.

On Tuesday, Delhi registered 214 cases with a positivity rate of 11.82 per cent. 115 fresh COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 7.45 per cent were recorded in the national capital on Monday. The city reported 153 cases with a positivity rate of 9.13 per cent on Sunday and 139 cases with a positivity rate of 4.98 per cent on Saturday.

Amid a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Delhi, experts have said the new XBB.1.16 variant might be driving this new surge in cases. They, however, maintain there is no need to panic and that people should follow COVID-appropriate behaviour and get booster shots of the vaccine.

They also believe that the number of cases has gone up because more people are getting themselves tested for coronavirus as a precaution when they actually get infected with influenza virus and develop fever and related symptoms.

Also read: Delhi logs highest daily Covid cases in 7 months, positivity jumps to nearly 14%

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