Delhi logs 733 daily Covid cases, highest in seven months

Delhi's latest Covid data reported an increase of 127 cases compared to Thursday when 606 cases were reported, with one fatality.

Delhi recorded 733 new cases of Covid on Friday, the highest in over seven months, with a positivity rate of 19.93 per cent, the Delhi government’s health department said in its bulletin. With an uptick in cases, the city also registered two deaths of Covid positive people, however, "Covid finding was incidental", the bulletin added.

With the latest data, the city infection tally has risen to 20,13,403. (HT_PRINT)

The numbers are the highest since August last year when 620 cases in a day were reported in its last week. The latest counting is an increase of 127 cases compared to Thursday when 606 cases were reported, with one fatality.

At present, Delhi’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 26,536, according to the bulletin. With the latest data, the city's infection tally has risen to 20,13,403. A total of 3,678 Covid tests were conducted on Thursday, as per data.

Meanwhile, experts on Covid surge noted that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was moving into an endemic state in India, as its behaviour mirrored the spread of common cold. “COVID-19 is effectively endemic in the country, and virtually all of us will have sustained an infection by now, whether we knew it or not. The virus is behaving like coronaviruses that cause common-cold-like symptoms and can keep reinfecting us,” Gautam I. Menon, dean (research) and professor, Departments of Physics and Biology at Haryana’s Ashoka University, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Overall in India, a total of 6,050 cases were reported Friday, the highest in 203 days but experts suggested that was no reason to worry as even as the virus mutates, there may be additional waves of infection but the impact will not be devastating as the Delta variant due to its endemicity.

"Most of the infections are mild and are treated on an outpatient basis," Viswesvaran Balasubramanian, consultant, interventional pulmonology and sleep medicine, at Hyderabad’s Yashoda Hospitals said, adding that the need for hospital admissions in view of severe Covid infection is seen among the elderly and those with immunocompromised conditions.

(With PTI inputs)