Delhi: New Covid-19 cases drop below 400 for first time since mid-March

The city added 381 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday after conducting 76,857 tests, which means that just 0.5% of all people tested had contracted the infection.

In a positive sign for Delhi a day before several lockdown restrictions are lifted, the daily Covid-19 case count in the Capital on Sunday dropped below 400 for the first time since mid-March as Delhi continued to recover after a devastating surge of infection between April and May.

The Capital has added an average of 522 infections each day over the past week, less than half of the 1,246 average cases it added seven days ago.

The city added 381 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday after conducting 76,857 tests, which means that just 0.5% of all people tested had contracted the infection. This number — known as the test positivity rate — is crucial to understand the degree of infection spread in a region.

Daily deaths of the viral infection also fell to their lowest in nearly two months. On Sunday, 34 more people died of the infection, the lowest daily toll since April 8, when 24 people succumbed to the infection. Over the past week, on average, 63 people died in Delhi died of Covid-19 a day. Just a week ago, this number was more than double. In the week ending May 30, data from the state health bulletin showed that an average of 136 people died of the infection in the city.

The Capital has added an average of 522 infections each day over the past week, less than half of the 1,246 average cases it added seven days ago. At the height of the fourth wave, the seven-day average peaked at 25,294 cases on April 23.

Tracking a region’s positivity rate can serve as a good indicator for whether infections are likely to increase or decrease in the coming days.

Delhi’s test positivity rate has dropped nearly every day since early-May, though the fall built momentum in the second week of that month. Sunday’s test positivity rate is the lowest in 90 days, going back to early March, in clear signs that the fourth wave of infections is now well and truly ever, which experts attested to.