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Delhi records 12K Covid-19 cases, 347 deaths, positivity rate reduced to half in 20 days
Delhi on Tuesday recorded 12,481 fresh Covid-19 cases, 347 deaths, positivity rate reduced to half in 20 days.
Delhi on Tuesday recorded 12,481 fresh cases of Covid-19, the second day in a row that the number stayed under 13,000 without significant reduction in testing, officials said. The national capital also saw 347 fatalities in the last 24 hours due to the deadly viral contagion, taking the cumulative death toll past 20,000, the health bulletin said. A total of 20,010 people have died since the onset of the pandemic, according to officials.
The coronavirus cases in the national capital fell below 13,000-mark after 28 days on Monday, indicating that Delhi may have arrested to some degree the fourth wave of the coronavirus outbreak, which chief minister Arvind Kejriwal termed as very serious and more dangerous than previous three waves.
The increased efforts to bring the disease spread under control has started showing signs of progress as the positivity rate - the proportion of samples turning up a positive result among all tested - has been reduced to half in 20 days. On Tuesday, Delhi's positivity rate stood at 17.76%, down from 19.10% recorded a day earlier.
The test positivity rate reached a peak of 36.2% on April 22, and stayed above 30% for eight more days before starting to decline. In Monday’s bulletin, it dipped below the 20% mark for the first time in nearly three weeks.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the positivity rate needs to come down below 5% for the outbreak to be considered under control.
A total of 70,276 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, out of which 54,619 were RT-PCR and 15,657 were rapid antigen tests. A total of 66,234 tests were carried out a day earlier.
Delhi's active cases dipped slightly to 83,809 from 85,258 recorded a day earlier. Among the infected, 51,480 people are recovering from the disease in home isolation.
The containment zones in Delhi also rose to 55,661 from 54,256 recorded a day earlier.
Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said on Tuesday that the positivity rate of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the national capital has declined from 36 per cent to 19.1 per cent in the past few days and the new cases have also dropped from 28,000 cases per day to around 12,500. However, he added that the government cannot be at ease until the positivity rate comes down below 5 per cent and the daily tally drops below 3,000-4,000 cases.
“The fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Delhi is very much there but its peak has been declining since the last week of April,” Jain said while addressing a press conference.
