Shattering its own record, Delhi on Wednesday recorded highest ever Covid-19 cases in a span of 24 hours, pushing the cumulative tally past the two lakh mark, sparking fears of second wave in the national capital.

The number of Covid-19 tests conducted in a single day also rose to a new record high with 54,517 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.

Delhi had last witnessed highest cases within a span of 24 hours in June 23 after 3,947 new infections were registered. Over the past week, Delhi has recorded more than 2,800 new cases every day on an average.

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Cases in Delhi rose rapidly through May and June but started dropping by the end of June after hitting an initial peak. After a steady drop in cases for around three weeks (seven-day average of daily cases dropped to 983 by August 4), cases again started rising alarmingly from mid-August. As of Wednesday, there are 2,01,174 cases in the city.

With the increase in tests, the average positivity rate has also started declining. Around 7.41 per cent of tests came back positive on Wednesday. The number, which had dropped from a peak of 31.4 per cent in mid-June to 5.7 per cent at the end of July, was 8.4 per cent in the past week. Overall, 10.57 per cent of all tests done in Delhi have come back positive.

With 11,101 RT-PCR tests, Delhi also set a record for the highest number of single-day RT-PCR tests, according to Wednesday’s health bulletin. Previously, this record was set on Tuesday (September 8), when Delhi conducted 9,944 such tests.

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According to Wednesday’s bulletin, 20 people died of the coronavirus disease taking the total death toll in Delhi to 4,638. The city’s case fatality rate now is 2.31 per cent. As many as 1,72,763 people have recovered from Covid-19 in Delhi till now, of which 2,623 recovered in the last 24 hours.

The number of containment zones also is now at a record high with 1,226 localities, buildings, lanes under lockdown in the city. On Tuesday, there were 1,166 containment zones in Delhi.