With 18,286 new cases, Delhi's daily Covid-19 tally dips 11.7% from yesterday

The cumulative fatality toll, which has now reached 25,363, showed a declining trend overall throughout this week – from 34 on Friday to 30 on Saturday and now 28 on Sunday.

Delhi on Sunday once again reported a dip in its daily coronavirus disease (Covid-19) numbers, clocking 18,286 new cases in the past 24 hours. According to the daily health bulletin on January 16, the total number of new positive cases today has reduced by 11.7 per cent from yesterday, when the national capital had recorded 20,718 new cases, which itself was a further 15 per cent dip from the numbers a day prior.

A healthcare worker checks a Covid-19 infected patient at Shehnai Banquet care centre in New Delhi on Sunday.  (Shrikant Singh / ANI)

The number of new deaths has reduced marginally, down to 28 from the 30 recorded a day prior. The cumulative fatality toll, which has now reached 25,363, showed a declining trend overall throughout this week – from 34 on Friday to 30 on Saturday and now 28 on Sunday.

This is now the third day in a row that Covid-19 cases in Delhi have continued going down steadily after it showed a hike for four consecutive days earlier. The positivity rate in the national capital has also reduced to 27.87 per cent, down from 30.64 per cent a day earlier.

The number of daily Covid-19 tests conducted, however, also went down on Sunday, albeit marginally – from 67,624 to 65,621 tests per day. Satyendar Jain, the health minister of Delhi, had addressed this issue in a press briefing earlier in the day and said that less testing does not equate to fewer Covid-19 cases. “Mild, asymptomatic, or high-risk contact cases, everyone gets tested,” he had said. “We [the health authorities in Delhi] are conducting three times more tests than that required by the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines.”

Pointing out that Covid-19 cases in Delhi have been reducing for the past three days, Jain said that a substantial decrease in these numbers can further be seen over the course of the next three to four days. The positivity rate, too, will reduce with time as patients currently hospitalised have mostly proved to be in a stagnant medical state, the minister said, adding that most of the Covid-19 deaths in the national capital have resulted from comorbidities.

The number of patients admitted to hospitals due to coronavirus climbed to 2,711 on Sunday, up from 2,620 on Saturday and 2,446 on Friday. In the past 24 hours, as many as 19,554 patients have recovered from the coronavirus infection and were discharged from hospitals after being treated for the same.

Barring the 2,591 patients who have confirmed Covid-19 infections and are currently hospitalised in Delhi, as many as 120 are suspected cases of the virus.

Delhi is currently under night curfew between 11pm and 5am along with weekend curfew. Schools, colleges, gyms, cinemas, and restaurants are also shut.