The overall AQI in Delhi on Friday stood at 419. (Photo: Reuters)

Respite from the freezing cold wave continued on Friday as Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 6 degrees Celsius in the wee hours.

However, there is no relief from pollution as the air quality remained between "Very Poor" and "Severe" category across Delhi-NCR.

Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday said that dense to very dense fog was observed in isolated pockets in the wee hours over Punjab and moderate fog was observed in isolated pockets over Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, eastern Uttar Pradesh, eastern Madhya Pradesh, and Tripura.

Major pollutants PM 2.5 were recorded at 302, which falls under the 'Very Poor' category, while PM 10 was recorded at 283 in the Lodhi Road area of Delhi, according to the Air Quality Index (AQI) data.

The overall AQI in Delhi on Thursday stood at 419, according to Government of India's air quality monitoring service SAFAR.

SAFAR in it's air quality bulletin on Thursday said: "The overall Delhi AQI is in the SEVERE category on 2nd January morning. Very calm conditions are persisting during stable night time with a sign of clustered emission hot spots, probably due to slow and congested traffic, leading to the accumulation of pollutants near the ground under very cool temperature".

It also predicted that the AQI is likely to improve to the higher-end of the 'Very Poor' category by the January 3 and likely to be in the same category on January 4 as well.