Delhi records 24,000 Covid cases, positivity rate at 30%

Delhi added 24,383 cases of Covid-19, down from 28,867 on Thursday, the largest single-day spike in the city ever. However, the city also collected nearly 20,000 samples on Friday, compared to the previous day, a testing dip that authorities attributed to Lohri on Thursday

The Capital’s daily Covid-19 case count dropped by nearly 4,500 on Friday amid a dip in testing the previous day, even as the positivity rate shot past the 30% mark for the first time in over eight-and-a-half months.

The test positivity rate, however, continued its upward surge, the sampling dip notwithstanding, breaching the 30% for the first time since May 1 last year (soon after the height of the fourth wave of infections). (Amal KS/HT Photo)

Delhi added 24,383 cases of Covid-19, down from 28,867 on Thursday, the largest single-day spike in the city ever. However, the city also collected nearly 20,000 samples on Friday, compared to the previous day, a testing dip that authorities attributed to Lohri on Thursday.

The city also added 34 deaths of the infection. So far in January this year, 198 in Delhi have lost their lives to Covid-19, and 25,305 have died over the course of the pandemic.

“Despite new cases arriving every day for the past few days, the number of patients admitted to the hospital is currently stable. But people should still be cautious and follow all Covid appropriate behaviour,” Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said on Friday.

Just over 92,000 people in Delhi are currently battling Covid-19. This number, known as the active case count, dipped (from 94,160 on Thursday) for the first time in over three weeks, as 26,326 people recovered from the virus, according to Friday’s bulletin, the most in a day since May 1 last year,

To be sure, hospitalisation numbers in the city are comparatively low, with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus (which is behind the ongoing infection surge) causing far fewer admissions than earlier configurations of the virus.

State government data showed that 2,529 patients in Delhi are hospitalised, up marginally from 2,424 a day ago.

Nearly 13,000 of the city’s 15,478 hospital beds are still vacant, with the state in a position to ramp up to 37,000 oxygen beds overnight, if required.

Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant (internal medicine), Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, said, “It seems like we are still at the peak of infections but maybe in the coming week we can see cases lowering. But we cannot say for sure. Compared to the last week, I am definitely receiving fewer calls for consultations. This could perhaps be seen as a positive sign.”