Delhi reports 6,608 new COVID-19 cases, 118 deaths

New Delhi: Delhi on Friday reported 6,608 new COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 5,17,238.

According to a health bulletin of the Delhi government, the death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 8,159 as 118 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

As many as 8,775 recoveries were reported on Friday, taking the total number of recovered patients to 4,68,143.

There are 40,936 active cases in the national capital.

A total of 62,425 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, according to Delhi Health Department.

In an effort to control the spread of Covid-19 in Delhi, house-to-house surveys and contact-tracing will be stepped up in containment zones, said the Delhi government.

“Contact tracing was already taking place before this spike and is still underway at a large scale. House-to-house surveys will be conducted in containment zones from today to check on symptomatic patients,” said Satyendar Jain, Delhi Health Minister, on Friday.

Dr. Atul Kakkar of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital asserted that door to door survey in Delhi is going to be beneficial for patients as it will help in detecting patients with comorbidity and elderly patients. “At least we will know how many patients we have and how best we can utilise medical facilities,” he said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Thursday announced that the fine for not wearing a mask has been increased to Rs 2,000 from Rs 500 in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases in the national capital.

Covid-19 has a potential to transmit from human to human when an infected person is in close contact with another. The virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough or sneeze. Face masks play an important role in containing its spread.