Daily tally dips to 10-day low of 18k, positivity at 27.9%
Delhi on Sunday added 18,286 cases of Covid-19, down from 20,718 the previous day, and the fewest in a day since January 7, when the city recorded 17,335 infections.
The Covid-19 test positivity rate in Delhi fell for the first time in nearly four weeks on Sunday, as fresh infections in the city dipped for the third straight day, showed data released by the state government.
Delhi on Sunday added 18,286 cases of Covid-19, down from 20,718 the previous day, and the fewest in a day since January 7, when the city recorded 17,335 infections.
The data showed that 28 people also died of the infection.
The case spike on Sunday came on the back of just over 65,000 tests, of which 27.87% samples returned positive results. This number, known as the test positivity rate, dipped from 30.6% on Friday and Saturday, and, on a day-to-day basis, fell for the first time since December 23 last year. Since then, this number has either increased or remained the same every day.
To be sure, testing has also dipped in Delhi over the past few days, dipping from over 105,000 tests on January 12, to 98,832 tests the day after that, then 79,758 on Friday, 67,624 on Saturday, and finally 65,621 on Sunday. State health minister Satyendar Jain, however, said that everyone in the city who needs to get a test is being tested.
These numbers come even as hospitalisation numbers in the Capital remain a fraction of all infections, with over 82% of all beds free in the city’s medical facilities.
According to the government’s Sunday bulletin, just over 2,700 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, leaving 12,788 of the city’s 15,499 beds free.
Of those in hospital, 738 are in intensive care units and 835 others need medical oxygen support, of whom 123 are on ventilators.
Jain said most hospitalised Covid-19 patients are either unvaccinated, or have comorbidities.
“The trend indicates that the number of cases in Delhi is decreasing, but the government is still keeping a close eye on the Covid cases, and it will take some time to understand the trend. Most of those affected by Covid and admitted in the hospital are either unvaccinated or have comorbid conditions,” said Jain in a media briefing.
The minister said Delhi government is prepared to operationalise a total of 37,000 Covid-19 beds. “We can double the number of beds overnight if necessary, but because the number of hospitalised patients is currently so low, the need to increase the number of beds doesn’t look like arising,” he said.