Delhi records 306 fresh cases of Covid-19, lowest in more than 7 months; recoveries nearing 615,000

The active cases further dropped to 3,354 while nearly 615,000 have recovered till now with 407 new recoveries added, the health department's bulletin showed.

Delhi on Monday registered 306 fresh coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases and 13 more related deaths which pushed the overall tally and death toll to 630,506 and 10,691 respectively, according to the Delhi health department's bulletin. Monday's cases have been the lowest in more than a period of seven months. The positivity rate currently stands at 0.54 per cent.

Health worker in PPE collects a swab sample from a person for coronavirus testing, outside New Ashok Nagar Metro station in New Delhi,

The active cases further dropped to 3,354 while nearly 615,000 have recovered till now with 407 new recoveries added, the bulletin showed. As many as 56,390 coronavirus tests were conducted today comprising 33,926 RTPCR/CB NAAT/True Nat tests and the remaining 22,464 rapid antigen tests. The number of containment zones as of date are 2,758 while nearly 1,500 people continue to remain in home isolation, the bulletin added.

Delhi had seen 399 coronavirus cases and 12 deaths on Monday. The daily tally in the Capital since the beginning of January has remained below the 600-mark except on January 6- when 654 cases were reported.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain earlier said that Delhi had been witnessing less than 1,000 cases since the last 15 days. "The Covid-19 situation in Delhi has improved a lot and it is now under control," Jain said. He added that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)- led government in the Capital had finalised 89 sites for rolling out the Covid-19 vaccination drive from January 16 which include 40 government hospitals and 49 hospitals.

"The first batch of vaccines will arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday. In the first phase, health care workers will be vaccinated. Thereafter, frontline workers and those aged above 50 will be given the doses," Jain said while speaking to reporters on Sunday. He also pointed out that teachers will be included as frontline workers and there will be one vaccination centre in each hospital.

Meanwhile, India on Monday had recorded 18,645 new coronavirus cases and 201 related deaths, according to the Union health ministry's update at 8 am. The total cases have climbed to over 10.4 million which include 222,526 active cases and 10,092,909 recoveries.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual meeting with the chief ministers of all states to discuss the coronavirus situation and the vaccination roll-out in the country. Modi said that apart from the two already approved vaccines, four others were in the pipeline adding that experts had taken all precautions to provide citizens with effective vaccines.