Highest 1-day spike of 2,877 new cases

DDMA APPROVES CAPPED PRIVATE TESTING IN CAPITAL

NEW DELHI: Delhi on Thursday reported its highest single-day increase in new COVID-19 cases for the second consecutive day as officials here said 2,877 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours, taking the tally in the Capital to 49,979. However, the number of recoveries surpassed new cases with 3,884 COVID-19 recoveries being reported in a single day.

The official health bulletin showed that 65 new deaths were added to the toll, taking the total number of fatalities in Delhi to 1,969, leaving a total of 26,669 active patients.

Testing numbers in Delhi have also significantly improved in the last three days. While the Capital saw over 8,000 tests being conducted in a single day for the first time in June on Wednesday, Thursday’s bulletin showed that Delhi had

conducted 8,726 tests in the last 24 hours.

Significantly, rapid antigen COVID-19 tests were started on Thursday as Minister of

State G Kishen Reddy visited some of these testing centres. At Thursday’s Delhi Disaster Management Authority meeting, senior officials were informed that such tests had begun across 169 centres with 341 teams deployed to administer them.

Moreover, at the DDMA meeting, chaired by LG Anil Baijal, the special committee’s report on reduced private COVID-19 treatment in the Capital was also received. The committee, headed by NITI Aayog Member, Dr VK Paul was supposed to examine cheap rates that could be provided to at least 60 per cent of patients being treated in private hospitals. The same committee had also recommended capping private RT-PCR tests at Rs 2,400.

The DDMA immediately approved the cap on private testing as recommended by the special committee.