Capital adds fewer than 5k Covid-19 cases for second day

Delhi on Sunday recorded 4,906 new Covid-19 cases, the second consecutive day the city logged fewer than 5,000 infections, despite conducting more than 64,000 tests, indicating that the third and the sharpest wave of the disease in the Capital could be trending towards a decline.

Delhi also recorded 68 more Covid-19 deaths, taking the toll beyond 9,000. The city last recorded a triple-digit figure of deaths in a single day on November 24, with 109 fatalities, according to government data.

The test positivity rate on Sunday was recorded at 7.64%, lower than levels over 15% in mid-November. “Number of cases and deaths go further down – it’s going down since 7 Nov. The Delhi government is working very hard. Our doctors, nurses and all other Corona warriors are working round the clock. I urge you all to continue to observe all precautions,” Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Sunday.

According to government records, Delhi recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases in a day (8,593) on November 11, and on November 18, the city recorded the highest number of deaths (131). The overall test positivity rate was 15.33% recorded on November 15 – the highest since June 27 (15.37%) – and it has been on a decline since then. The Delhi government’s bulletins carry data pertaining to tests carried out the previous day.

“To understand the peak of the third wave, we should look at the peak positivity rates of RT-PCR tests, antigen tests and overall tests. This happened on Nov 7, when the positivity rate of RT-PCR tests was as high as 30.2%, antigen tests was 8.4% and overall positivity rate was 15.26%. This when the overall tests were quite high at 50,754 on Nov 7 and the number of new cases was 7,745,” a statement by the Delhi government said.

“In comparison, although the new cases on Nov 10 was 8,593, it was because the tests reached a record of 64,121 for any day in November, but the overall positivity rate had already declined to 13.4% and positivity rate for RT-PCR tests had also declined to 27.8%. The high positivity rate for Nov 14 (15.3%) was an aberration because of the extremely low testing at only 21,000 tests because it was the day of Diwali and even then, the RT-PCR tests positivity rate on Nov 14 (26.7%) was continuing to show a declining trend,” it added.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said that the current trends suggested that the “outbreak” was on “perpetual decline”, even as he emphasised on increasing RT-PCR testing capacity in the city.

Sunday’s health bulletin recorded 64,186 total Covid-19 tests of which 29,839 were RT-PCR tests, considered the gold standard for Covid-19 detection.