Slight drop in infections as Delhi sees 965 Covid cases

Thursday’s new cases marked a minor fall from the numbers witnessed on Wednesday, when there were 1,009 new cases — the first time in 69 days that daily infections in the city had crossed the 1,000-mark.

There were 965 new infections of Covid-19 reported in Delhi on Thursday, as the city’s outbreak continued with its minor, but sustained, uptick in new infections of the viral disease, data released by the state government showed.

 A child in the age group of 12-15 years receives a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine during a vaccination drive at the Daryaganj government dispensary in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times)

Thursday’s new cases marked a minor fall from the numbers witnessed on Wednesday, when there were 1,009 new cases — the first time in 69 days that daily infections in the city had crossed the 1,000-mark.

The seven-day average of daily infections, a number that denotes a region’s Covid-19 case curve, in Delhi has now climbed to 636 for the week ended Thursday. This number, which was falling for nearly three months since mid-January when the city’s Omicron wave peaked, has now been slowly climbing. For the week ended March 31, the city reported 103 cases every single day on average.

Meanwhile, the test positivity rate — the proportion of samples tested that return positive for Covid-19 — on Thursday was 4.7%, a single percentage point drop from Thursday’s figure of 5.7%.

It was keeping this recent spike in infections in mind that the Delhi government, a day earlier, had announced that masks would be made mandatory for people in public spaces, bringing back a ₹500 fine for violators and announcing a host of other measures to contain the spread of the disease.

Government officials said that they are closely monitoring the situation and that there is currently no need to panic as over 99% of hospital beds in the city earmarked for Covid-19 patients are currently lying empty. “The way our health infrastructure is placed right now, it can deal with situations far worse than what we are currently seeing. Since the occupancy of hospital beds remains low, we want to stress that there’s far from any need to panic,” the official, who did not wish to be identified, said.

As per official government data, of the 9,737 beds earmarked for Covid-19 patients in the city’s hospitals, only 78 are occupied. This means that 99.2% of all such hospital beds are currently lying vacant.