Day before unlock, Delhi’s daily Covid-19 tally falls below 400-mark

Nearly 1,200–1,189 to be exact—patients were discharged in the last 24 hours and 34 succumbed to the viral disease, taking the recoveries and death toll to 1,398,764 and 24,591 respectively.

A day before Covid curbs are to be relaxed in Delhi, the Capital recorded 381 new cases of the coronavirus disease, the lowest in nearly three months, taking the Capital’s caseload to 1,429,244, according to the health department’s bulletin on Sunday. Sunday’s cases have been the lowest since March 15 this year, when 368 people tested positive for Covid-19. Nearly 1,200–1,189 to be exact—patients were discharged in the last 24 hours and 34 succumbed to the viral disease, taking the recoveries and death toll to 1,398,764 and 24,591 respectively.

A health worker in PPE coveralls collects a swab sample from a factory worker for Covid-19 test, at Naraina, in New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/ HT Photo)

The active cases in the national capital have come down to 5,889 and the positivity rate has also dropped to 0.50%, the bulletin showed. As many as 76,857 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours of which 55,786 are RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat tests while the remaining 21,071 are rapid antigen tests. The number of patients under home isolation is just a little above 2,300 and the containment zones have come down to 11,557, according to the bulletin.

Delhi has been seeing consistent improvement in its overall Covid-19 situation as a result of the complete lockdown imposed since April 19 this year. From Monday, the unlocking process will begin where shops including those selling liquor will reopen on an odd-even basis, e-commerce services will resume, private and government offices will reopen at 50 per cent attendance and metro services will resume at half the capacity.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday that his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led Delhi government is preparing to deal with an infection peak of 37,000 Covid-19 cases a day amid the upcoming third wave of the pandemic. Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said the government is working towards ramping up the oxygen infrastructure along with the setting up of a paediatric task force and two genome sequencing labs. The government will also create a buffer stock of all important medicines, the chief minister added.

More than 58,000 beneficiaries were vaccinated against the viral disease in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative figures to 5,650,819. Delhi is still facing a severe crunch of vaccine doses and it has been over two weeks since inoculations for beneficiaries between 18-44 years had been suspended. AAP MLA Atishi on Saturday urged the Centre to provide doses for the 18+ age group. She said that doses of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield vaccine will last for nearly a month while Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin will only last for two more days.