Positivity rate up to 2.44%, city adds 1796 new cases

On Friday, for the first time in 220 days, the Covid-19 test positivity rate in Delhi jumped past the 2% mark.

The Covid-19 test positivity rate in Delhi jumped past the 2% mark for the first time in 220 days on Friday, as the city added 1,796 cases of the infection, according to the state government’s daily health bulletin.

A healthcare worker collects a swab sample of a passenger for the Covid-19 testing at New Delhi Railway Station. 

Friday’s fresh infections were the most in a day since May 22, when Delhi logged 2,260 fresh infections.

Delhi added an average of 771 fresh cases each day over the previous seven days, as the city’s Covid-19 continued to bend upwards in a surge likely driven by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The test positivity rate (percentage of tested samples that return negative results) jumped to 2.44% on Friday, up from 1.73% the previous day, and the highest since May 24, when the statistic touched 2.52%.

To be sure the city did not register any Covid-19 death on Friday, and indeed, did not register a fatality in the last three days of December.

Hospital occupancy also continues to be low, with a vast majority of beds reserved for Covid-19 patients vacant, according to the state’s Delhi Corona app. Nearly 21,000 hospital beds are available for Covid-19 patients, the state dashboard showed.