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Delhi: Most cases in 67 days after record 32k Covid-19 tests
This was the second day in a row that the city has set a new record in single-day Covid-19 tests. The boost in testing numbers comes a week after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that Covid-19 testing in the city would be doubled to 40,000 a day with the city seeing a resurgence of cases since mid-August.
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The national capital on Thursday witnessed two extremes with the government conducting a record 32,834 daily tests for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the city registering 2,737 new infections — the highest single-day spike in 67 days.
This was the second day in a row that the city has set a new record in single-day Covid-19 tests. The boost in testing numbers comes a week after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that Covid-19 testing in the city would be doubled to 40,000 a day with the city seeing a resurgence of cases since mid-August.
As testing increased, 2,737 new cases were reported in Delhi — the highest single-day case count since June 28, or 67 days — keeping with the trend of resurgence of daily infections in the city. There were 2,889 new cases on June 28. The seven-day average of daily cases, which peaked at 3,446 on June 26 before falling to 983 on August 4, has now been rising for the 17th consecutive day and stands at 2,100. The total number of cases in the city is 182,306. 
The death toll from Covid-19, meanwhile, touched 4,500, with 19 new deaths lodged on Thursday. As many as 160,114 people have recovered from the disease so far.
Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said that the current rise in cases “cannot be called a second wave” of the virus. “You can’t say it is a second wave. We could have called it a second wave if there were no positive cases for one or two months and then cases would’ve started coming again. The virus is still there in Delhi,” he said.
People “should not stress about the numbers”, he said, as he attributed the spike to the increased number of tests in the city.
Members of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Wednesday, in a meeting chaired by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, discussed the rising infections in Delhi, senior government officials said. “Principal Secretary (health and family welfare) Vikram Dev Dutt informed the DDMA about some probable reasons for the increase in positivity rate Delhi. The possible reasons included lack of adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour; impact of festivals in the month of August; late testing by Covid suspects; cross-infection; return of migrants and unlock measures,” a DDMA official, who did not wish to be identified, said.
In a statement issued late in the evening, the DDMA said the L-G advised that besides the entry points to the city (ISBTs and railway stations), large-scale construction sites should also be covered through special camps for targeted testing. These camps are to be set up within a week. Besides, he has also directed the government to prepare a policy to introduce a “test on demand” programme wherein people could call at a helpline number and fix an appointment at the nearest Covid testing centre without having to wait in a queue.
The share of antigen tests continues to be over 70% of the total daily tests. According to Thursday’s health bulletin, 24,512 rapid antigen tests (75%) and 8,322 RT-PCR tests were conducted in the past 24 hours.
Antigen tests generally provide results within hours and are relatively cheap, but they can give false negatives (in other words, they can miss positive cases). RT-PCR tests, on the other hand, is the most definitive test currently available for Covid-19 and experts say it should be used to the extent possible, especially if authorities have the capacity to do so. The downside is that they can generally take 24-48 hours and need specialised machines.
