Delhi Registers Biggest Daily Spike With 500 New Covid-19 Cases, Tally at 10,554; Death Toll Climbs to 166

The coronavirus death toll in Delhi has climbed to 166 while 500 fresh cases of the disease were reported on Tuesday, the highest single-day spike here that took the total number of cases in the city to 10,554, authorities said.

The previous highest spike in fresh cases -- 472 -- was recorded on May 14.

In a bulletin issued on Tuesday, the Delhi health department said the death toll from coronavirus infection has risen to 166 and the total number of cases mounted to 10,554.

It, however, added that the cumulative death figures refer to fatalities where the primary cause of death was found to be COVID-19 as per the report of the Death Audit Committee on the basis of case sheets received from various hospitals.

On Monday, the total number of cases stood at 10,054, including 160 deaths.

As many as 500 fresh cases of coronavirus were reported on Tuesday.

Of the total number of deceased patients in the city, 87 were aged 60 and above, accounting for over 52 per cent of the fatalities here. Forty-five of them were aged between 50-59 years and 34 were less than 50 years old, the bulletin said.

Facing criticism for "under reporting" COVID-19 deaths, the Delhi government on Sunday had issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) for hospitals and other health facilities in the city on reporting fatalities due to coronavirus.

An order has been issued on managing healthcare workers in COVID and non-COVID areas of hospitals as per the guidelines issued by the Centre.

As many as 4,750 patients have recovered and been discharged or migrated so far, while there are 5,638 active cases at present, the Delhi health department said.

A total of 1,45,854 COVID-19 tests have been conducted till date, it said.

The total number of COVID-19 positive patients under home isolation stands at 2,261, it said.

According to the Delhi Health Department bulletin, out of the total 10,554 cases recorded so far, at least 1,779 are admitted in various hospitals like LNJP Hospital, RML Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital (RGSSH) and AIIMS Jhajjhar, including 158 who are in ICU and 16 on ventilators.

The number of containment zones in Delhi has been reduced to 70.