Rising COVID cases due to aggressive testing; death rate low: Kejriwal

His reaction came in response to data that showed Delhi recorded 4,039 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day spike so far, as the total number of cases breached the two lakh-mark. The Chief Minister asked people not be afraid due to the rising number of cases, pointing out that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 was low in Delhi.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said COVID-19 cases in Delhi would have been in the range of 1,500 had the government continued to conduct only 15,000-20,000 tests per day. His reaction came in response to data that showed Delhi recorded 4,039 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day spike so far, as the total number of cases breached the two lakh-mark.

The Chief Minister asked people not be afraid due to the rising number of cases, pointing out that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 was low in Delhi. "Today, highest no of cases -- 4039. But also, highest no of tests -- 54,517 against 15,000/20,000 tests till last week. If we did same no of tests, today's cases wud be less than 1500. So, don't b scared by no of cases. Del wages war against corona wid aggressive testing (sic)," he tweeted.

The national capital recorded 4,039 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day spike so far, as the tally breached the two lakh-mark while the death toll mounted to 4,638, authorities said. "No of deaths continues to be low. It is 20 today, against more than 100 per day in June. People falling ill and recovering. Thru aggressive testing, we r isolating them and preventing its spread (sic)," Kejriwal said in another tweet.

This is the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic that over 4,000 cases have been recorded in Delhi in a day. Twenty fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.