Case count below 500 for the 1st time since mid-March, less than 50 deaths

The test positivity rate, a crucial metric to gauge the spread of an infection, stayed below 1% in the city for the fourth straight day as well. The city recorded a positivity rate of 0.61%.

Delhi’s daily Covid-19 tally dipped below 500 cases for the first time since mid-March, while deaths of the infection also dropped to a 45-day low, as the Capital continued to recover from the fourth surge of the coronavirus. Data from the state government’s daily health bulletin showed that the Covid-19 test positivity has been below for 5% for two weeks.

The city added 487 new infections on Thursday, the fewest since March 16, when Delhi logged 425 infections. (Reuters)

Positivity rate is a crucial metric as experts say it shows how widespread the virus is in the community (HT illustrator)

The city added 487 new infections on Thursday, the fewest since March 16, when Delhi logged 425 infections.

The seven-day average of cases, known as case trajectory, continued to drop sharply, falling to 768 on Thursday, the lowest since the last week of March.

The test positivity rate, a crucial metric to gauge the spread of an infection, stayed below 1% in the city for the fourth straight day as well. The city recorded a positivity rate of 0.61%.

Positivity rate is a crucial metric as experts say it shows how widespread the virus is in the community, and when a dropping positivity rate is coupled with decreasing new cases, it indicates that the spread of the virus is reducing within the community. Tracking a region’s positivity rate serves as a good barometer for whether cases are going to increase or decrease in the coming days.

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 14 days now.

With 1.4 million cases recorded in Delhi so far, experts said there may not be a huge surge in cases in the city for at least six months, even as the city is in the process of adding beds and oxygen capacity in preparation for the third surge.

“I don’t think that there will be another surge in infections at least for the next six months; a lot of the susceptible people were infected during the current surge. There isn’t much of a susceptible pool left in the city to drive more infection,” said Dr Puneet Mishra, professor in the department of community medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Over 1k black fungus cases in Delhi: Jain

At least 89 patients in the national capital have died of mucormycosis so far, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said, on Thursday, adding that there have been at least 1,044 cases of the fungal infection in the city after the April-May surge in Covid-19 cases.

“There is also a severe shortage of Amphotericin-B,” said Jain, referring to the only last-line antifungal medicine that can effectively treat mucormycosis, which is commonly known as ‘black fungus’.