Fewest daily virus cases in Delhi for 131 days; 30 deaths

Delhi, in the seven days ending on Friday, recorded a daily average of 952 new infections — the first time this number has dropped below 1,000 since May 31, when it saw a seven-day average of 918 cases.

The national capital on Friday recorded 758 new cases of Covid-19, the fewest in a single day since August 16, even as testing remained high — with the city recording a test positivity rate below 1% on Friday, for only the second time since the state government began sharing testing data regularly.

Volunteers dressed as Santa Claus distribute face mask during an awareness drive amid coronavirus outbreak, near Palika Market in Connaught Place in New Delhi. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

Delhi, in the seven days ending on Friday, recorded a daily average of 952 new infections — the first time this number has dropped below 1,000 since May 31, when it saw a seven-day average of 918 cases.

The state government’s daily health bulletin on Friday also recorded 30 more deaths of the infection, taking the overall death toll in the city to 10,414.

With 85,749 tests, the positivity rate was recorded at 0.88%, even as a majority of these — 45,521 — were conducted using the gold standard reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. Experts have warned that if the RT-PCR tests slacken, it could catch the Capital off guard if the outbreak begins resurging.

The positivity rate has been below 2% for 11 days now and it was the second time this week that a positivity rate of less than 1% was recorded. Previously, the positivity rate was 0.99% on Wednesday.

Last week, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had that Delhi seems to have overcome the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Delhi had recorded the highest single day spike on November 11 with 8,593 cases in 24 hours.

So far, 621,439 people in Delhi have been diagnosed as Covid-19 positive, of whom 603,758 have recovered, government data showed.

As on Friday, 2,656 Covid-19 beds in Delhi’s hospitals were occupied, leaving vacant a vast majority of beds reserved to treat patients with the viral infection.

“The numbers are encouraging, especially the increased proportion of RT-PCR tests and the low positivity rate. The government should keep up with its currently applicable strategies on testing, tracing and isolation,” said Dr Lalit Kant, former head of the epidemiology and communicable diseases department in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).