Capital adds 1,141 Covid cases, positivity rate stays below 2%

With this, the seven-day average of new cases in the Capital, a statistic that denotes a region’s Covid curve, dropped to 1,533 cases a day the lowest in nearly two months, or since March 30 – highlighting Delhi’s remarkable turnaround from the massive fourth wave of infections.

The Capital on Friday recorded 1,141 new infections of Covid-19 and 139 more deaths, with the positivity rate remaining low at 1.6%, as city’s numbers continued its downward trend.

A health care worker administers a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at a drive-in camp at Select Citywalk Mall in Saket on Friday. (Ajay Aggarwal /HT PHOTO)

This is the third consecutive day when the cases have remained below the 1,500 mark. With this, the seven-day average of new cases in the Capital, a statistic that denotes a region’s Covid curve, dropped to 1,533 cases a day the lowest in nearly two months, or since March 30 – highlighting Delhi’s remarkable turnaround from the massive fourth wave of infections.

At its peak a little over a month ago, the seven-day average of new cases soared to a peak of 25,294 a day.

As per the Delhi government’s health bulletin on Friday, there were 1,141 fresh cases detected in the past 24 hours from the 71,853 samples tested in the city, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 1,423,690. A total of 139 new deaths pushed the death toll from the deadly virus in the city to 23,951.

On Thursday, 1,072 cases and 117 deaths were recorded, while the positivity rate had dipped to 1.5%. On Friday, the positivity rate stood at 1.6%. The test positivity rate had soared to 36% in the last week of April, coming down to around 1.5% now.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the positivity rate from a region that has a comprehensive testing programme be at or below 5% for at least two weeks before it can be considered that the outbreak is under control. In Delhi, this number has been below the threshold for eight days now.

With a view on dropping cases, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said it was time to start the unlock process, but warned that if the coronavirus cases start rising again, “we will have to stop the unlock exercise”, and appealed to people not to step out unless it is absolutely necessary.