Delhi's latest Covid-19 positivity rate at 29%, says CM Kejriwal as lockdown extended

On April 22, positivity rate reached a record high of 36.24% in Delhi, as 26,169 out of 72,208 samples tested for Covid-19 in the preceding 24 hours, returned positive results. The positivity rate crossed 30% on April 20 and stayed above the mark.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that the capital’s positivity rate for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), from the samples tested for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, has come down from more than 30% to around 29% as he announced that the ongoing lockdown in the city, which was to end at 5am on Monday, will now last till 5am on May 3.

“We saw during the lockdown that the positivity rate reached an unprecedented 36%. It has gone down a bit in the last two-three days, it has slipped below 30% today and is at around 29 today. I’m not saying that Covid-19 is towards its end in Delhi but these are the current facts,” Kejriwal said. “It may rise or end but we pray to God that we are rid of coronavirus soon,” the chief minister further said. The national capital’s latest Covid-19 numbers will be released later in the day.

Delhi’s positivity rate first neared the 30% mark on April 18, with 25,462 samples testing positive for the viral disease out of 85,620 tested for it, or a positivity rate of 29.74%, according to a health department bulletin. The rate, which denotes the % of samples testing positive out of total samples tested for the disease in a 24-hour period, fell to 26.12% on April 19, that day’s bulletin showed.

Since then, however, it stayed above 30%, at 32.82% (April 20), 31.28% (April 21), as well as a record high of 36% on April 22, as referenced by the Delhi chief minister in his address on Sunday. The corresponding figures for April 23 and 24 were 32.43% and 32.27% respectively. According to the April 24 bulletin, 24,103 out of 74,702 samples tested in the preceding 24 hours returned positive results.

Delhi, which entered a six-day lockdown at 10pm on April 19 as announced by Kejriwal earlier that day, has a current infection tally of 1,004,782, as per the health department bulletin. Thus far, 16,705,947 samples have been tested for Covid-19, giving the city an overall positivity rate of 6%. The virus has also claimed 13,898 lives thus far in the Capital, while 897,804 people have defeated the infection. Active cases, meanwhile, are at 93,080.