Delhi records lowest number of Covid-19 cases in 117 days

With fewer new cases, Delhi saw its positivity rate drop to 1.30% on Saturday – the second lowest since the government started providing daily data on number of tests and cases since early April. The positivity rate – proportion of samples that test positive among the total tested – has remained below 2% for the fifth day in a row.

Delhi on Saturday conducted more than 87,000 tests, and reported 1,139 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) — the lowest in 117 days, since 1,061 cases were reported on August 24.

With fewer new cases and higher number of recoveries, the number of active cases or those with current infection has reduced to 10,358 as on Saturday, lowest since August 10. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT Photo)

With fewer new cases, Delhi saw its positivity rate drop to 1.30% on Saturday – the second lowest since the government started providing daily data on number of tests and cases since early April. The positivity rate – proportion of samples that test positive among the total tested – has remained below 2% for the fifth day in a row.

Experts believe that the spread of the infection is in control if the positivity rate remains at 5% or less for two weeks. In Delhi, it has been 5% or less for 18 days now. This is the first time that Delhi has seen the positivity rate remaining below the 5% threshold for an extended period of time.

Previously, it had remained below 6% for 17 days between September-end and mid-October.

With fewer new cases and higher number of recoveries, the number of active cases or those with current infection has reduced to 10,358 as on Saturday, lowest since August 10. At its peak, Delhi saw 44,456 concurrent infections in mid-November.

On Saturday, the city also reported 32 deaths due to the infection, taking the total toll to 10,251 so far. The seven-day case fatality ratio – proportion of deaths among those who test positive – was 2.58% on Saturday. In comparison, Delhi’s 7-day average CFR was 1.55% on November 18 when the city reported the highest number of deaths 1 131.

“The declining number of cases and positivity rate is a good sign. With a huge proportion of people having been infected in the city, especially during the surge last month, it seems unlikely that Delhi would see a surge in cases again. Some infections may continue to be reported from pockets where people have been left unexposed. A spike in Delhi is only possible if the virus mutates, if a lot of susceptible people migrate into the city, or years later when there are a substantial number of children who are unexposed to the virus,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung hospital.

He said, even on a national level a surge is unlikely as the infection has already spread even to rural areas. “The virus may just disappear just like its predecessor SARS,” he said.

SARS is caused by a similar virus from the coronavirus family that caused an outbreak in 2002-03 that infected about 8,000 people and killed 774 globally.