With 2089 new cases, Delhi's COVID-19 tally reaches 1,09,140; 42 more deaths in past 24 hours

With 2089 new cases, Delhi's tally of confirmed Covid-19 cases now stands at 1,09,140, the Health Department said on Friday; In the last 24 hours, the Delhi government's Health Department recorded 42 more coronavirus-related deaths and another 2468 recoveries.

NEW DELHI: With 2089 new cases, Delhi's tally of confirmed Covid-19 cases now stands at 1,09,140, the Health Department said on Friday evening; In the last 24 hours, the Delhi government's Health Department recorded 42 more coronavirus-related deaths and another 2468 recoveries.

As of July 10, a total of 84,694 patients have recovered from Covid-19 in Delhi while 3300 have succumbed to it. Now, there are 21,146 active cases in Delhi. At the same time, 12,272 patients are currently in home isolation in the national capital. The silver lining, however, is the recovery rate which is over 74 per cent.

Meanwhile, 10,129 RT-PCR tests and 12,832 rapid antigen tests were conducted on Friday. Total tests done so far stands at 7,47,109, the Health Department said.

In a related development, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday spoke to plasma donors and thanked them for their contribution in saving the lives of coronavirus patients. The Chief Minister praised them for donating plasma and appealed to them to motivate more recovered patients to come forward and donate.

"When I hear stories of plasma donors, I feel very proud of my fellow Delhiites. So, I decided to call and congratulate some donors," he tweeted, sharing the audio of his conversation with the donors.

The Delhi government has set up India`s first plasma bank at the ILBS Hospital, with an objective to maintain a plasma stock from those who have already recovered from the disease.

Addressing a press briefing earlier, Kejriwal had said that as plasma has been proven as an effective solution for the recovery of moderate patients, its therapy should be provided to patients until a vaccine comes.

He said that the plasma bank will enable the people to obtain plasma without any hassles and had also laid out detailed eligibility criteria over who can and cannot donate plasma.

Earlier on Friday, India recorded the highest single-day spike of over 26,502 new coronavirus cases and 475 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total tally close to eight lakh with 21,604 deaths.

Health Ministry’s data revealed on Friday morning that out of total 7,93,802 cases, 4,95,513 have recovered while 2,76,685 remain active in the country. With more Covid-19 patients recovering, the gap between the number of recovered cases and active cases has increased by two lakh.

The rate of recovery among the Covid-19 patients continues to increase and has touched 62.42 per cent. India, however, remains to be the third worst-affected country after the US and Brazil.

During the last 24 hours, 2,83,659 samples were tested, as the testing lab network continues to expand. As on date, more than 1,119 labs have enabled people to undergo coronavirus tests.

Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state, with cases reaching up to 2,30,599 and 9,667 casualties so far, of which 417 occurred in the last 24 hours. Tamil Nadu remained the second-worst hit with a total of 1,26,581 cases, including 1,765 deaths.

States with more than 10,000 cases include Gujarat with 39,194 cases and 2,008 deaths, Uttar Pradesh (32,362), Rajasthan (22,563), Madhya Pradesh (16,341), West Bengal (25,911), Haryana (19,369), Karnataka (31,105), Andhra Pradesh (23,814), Telangana (30,946), Assam (14,032) and Bihar (13,944) cases.