Delhi today recorded 519 fresh coronavirus (Covid-19) cases and 12 Covid linked deaths, according to the Delhi government’s latest health bulletin.

These cases were detected out of 80,275 tests including 45,079 RT-PCR tests and 35,196 rapid antigen tests, the health bulletin said. The city’s Covid positivity rate climbed to 0.65 per cent from yesterday’s 0.59 per cent. Delhi’s Covid caseload mounted to 6,29,801 and the coronavirus- related death toll rose to 10,666.

The city’s active coronavirus cases tally dropped to 3,683 from yesterday’s 3,779. The bulletin stated that 603 Covid patients recovered over the last 24 hours, which raised the cumulative number of such recoveries in the national capital to 6,15,452 so far. The recovery rate stood above 97 per cent.

The number of containment zones in the city dipped to 2,951 from 2,965 the previous day. The number of people under home isolation dropped to 1,652 from 1,807 the previous day. Of the total number of 12,166 beds in Delhi’s Covid hospitals, 10,709 beds were vacant.

The bulletin stated that 70 beds in Covid care centres were occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned through the Vande Bharat Mission and by bubble flights.

The number of tests done per million in Delhi so far was over 4.9 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 93 lakh. Cabinet secretary took a meeting through videoconference on public health response to Covid-19 to review preparations for the vaccination, the bulletin said.

This month, 585 coronavirus cases were logged in Delhi on 1 January and 494 cases on 2 January, 424 on 3 January, 384 on 4 January, 442 on 5 January, 654 on 6 January, 486 on 7 January, and 444 on 8 January.

On 29 and 30 December, the city had recorded 703 and 677 cases respectively. On 31 December, it reported 574 cases. Meanwhile, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal today appealed to the Narendra Modi-led central government to ensure that everyone gets free Covid vaccine.

“Coronavirus is the century’s biggest pandemic. It is very important to protect our people from it. I appeal to the central government to ensure that everyone gets free vaccine. The expenditure on this will save many Indian lives,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

The Delhi government has already announced that the coronavirus vaccine, whenever it is available, will be provided free to people in the city.

“The Delhi government is fully prepared to receive, store and administer Covid- 19 vaccine to 51 lakh priority category persons in the city in the first phase of vaccination. The vaccine will be provided free to everyone in Delhi,” health minister Satyendra Jain had recently said.

Delhi had yesterday recorded 444 Covid cases following 75,724 tests. The city had then logged 10 Covid-linked fatalities. The recovery rate was 97.71 per cent.

~With inputs from PTI~