Delhi reports over 1,254 coronavirus cases, 6 deaths on Wednesday

Delhi reported 1,254 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, highest in over three months, while six more people succumbed to the disease, the health department said.

This is the highest number of cases since December 18 when 1,418 people tested positive for the virus, according to official data.

The city had recorded 1,101 cases on Tuesday. It was the first time since December 24 that the number of cases crossed the 1,000 mark.

The active cases rose to 4,890 on Wednesday from 4,411 from a day ago. The positivity remained rose to 1.52 per cent, the health bulletin said.

The positivity rate was 1.31 per cent on Tuesday,1.32 per cent on Monday and 1.03 per cent on Sunday.

The new infections pushed the tally to 6,51,227, while over 6.35 lakh patients have recovered from the virus.

There were 888 cases on Monday, 823 on Sunday, 813 on Saturday, 716 on Friday, 607 on Thursday, and 536 on Wednesday, according to official data.

Six more people died from the pathogen on Wednesday, taking the number of fatalities to 10,973.

A total of 82,331 tests, including 52,224 RT-PCR tests, were conducted a day ago, the bulletin said.

The number of people under home isolation rose to 2,560 from 2,316 a day ago. The containment zones rose to 976 from 871 on Tuesday, it said.

The total number of cases in Delhi on January 1 had stood at over 6.25 lakh and the total fatalities were 10,557.

The number of daily cases had started to come down in February. On February 26, the month's highest daily count of 256 cases was recorded.

However, the daily cases have begun to rise again in March and it has been steadily increasing over the past few days.

Health experts and doctors have attributed this "sudden rise" in cases to people turning complacent, not following COVID-appropriate behaviour and "assuming all is well now".

Amid a rise in coronavirus cases, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority had on Tuesday ordered that there will be no public celebrations in the national capital during upcoming festivals such Holi and Navaratri.