Delhi's tally of active coronavirus cases crosses 10,000-mark

Bad news rained on Delhi on Saturday as the capital recorded more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases for third consecutive day and the number of people under treatment crossed the 10,000-mark for the first time.

The city reported 1,163 cases, the highest spike for a single day, taking the total to 18,549 cases. Of this, 15,031 or 81.03 per cent of total cases reported in May alone. Since May 18 when lockdown 4.0 came into effect with more relaxations, there have been 8,525 cases or 56.71 per cent of the cases reported this month so far.

The latest medical bulletin also added 18 more deaths to the toll taking the total to 416.

For the first time since the first case was reported on March 2, the capital has more than 10,000 active patients at a time -- 10,058 out of which 5,139 are in home isolation.

According to the bulletin, 229 new patients have recovered, taking the total to 8,075.

So far, Delhi has tested 2.06 lakh samples, which includes 7,113 new samples.

An order has been issued for designating three additional Delhi government hospitals -- Deep Chand Bandhu hospital, Satyavadi Raja HarishChander hospital and GTB hospital -- as COVID-19 hospitals with an additional bed capacity of 900 beds.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the government has issued orders to ensure that there are around 9,500 beds for COVID-19 patients by June 5.