Delhi adds 407 new Covid cases, 2 deaths

The city has seen an increase in the number of people hospitalised with the infection as well — from 400 people across city hospitals on February 26 to 582 as on Sunday evening, according to the state’s daily health bulletin.

The Capital reported over 400 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) for the fourth day in a row on Sunday. The city added 407 cases to its tally of over 643,000 infections so far since March 2 last year, when the first case was detected.

On average, 2.2 deaths were reported each day during the first 14 days of March as compared to 1.3 deaths during the second half of February. The numbers were higher – 2.6 deaths a day on average – during the first half of the month. (AFP)

The city has seen an increase in the number of people hospitalised with the infection as well — from 400 people across city hospitals on February 26 to 582 as on Sunday evening, according to the state’s daily health bulletin.

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The number of deaths reported each day has also increased slightly. On average, 2.2 deaths were reported each day during the first 14 days of March as compared to 1.3 deaths during the second half of February. The numbers were higher – 2.6 deaths a day on average – during the first half of the month.

So far, 10,941 persons have died of the infection.

With over 68,000 tests conducted on Saturday – reported a day later in Sunday’s health bulletin – Delhi’s positivity rate stood at 0.60%. The positivity rate is the proportion of samples that return positive among the total tested and is indicative of the spread of the infection in a region.

Experts believe that a positivity rate of 5% or less maintained over two weeks indicates that the spread of the infection is under control. Although, Delhi’s positivity rate is much lower than this it has been inching upwards since mid-February.

The average positivity rate over the first 14 days of March has been 0.49%. In comparison, the average positivity rate during second half of February was 0.28% and 0.23% during the first half of the month, data shows.

“The situation is exactly like it was during Diwali when people were out and about, leading to a lot of asymptomatic spread of the infection. The euphoria of having low number of cases in Delhi was short-lived because people have stopped following Covid-19 norms such as social distancing and masking,” said Dr GC Khilnani, former head of the department of pulmonary medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

He added, “With the number of cases going down, people stopped following Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. The city also has a huge floating population — people travelling to other states and other countries. There is still a significant proportion who haven’t developed immunity against the infection. The problem is compounded by the emergence of new variants — some we know of, others we don’t.”