Delhi today recorded 431 fresh coronavirus infections (Covid-19) — the highest in more than two months — while the positivity rate increased to 0.60 per cent, according to the Delhi government’s latest health bulletin.
The city thus registered over 400 Covid cases for the second consecutive day today as it had yesterday logged 409 cases.
The national capital’s Covid toll climbed to 10,936 with two more fatalities, the health bulletin said. Delhi had recorded 370 Covid cases and 3 deaths on 10 March and 320 cases and 4 deaths on 9 March. On 7 and 8 March, 286 and 239 coronavirus cases, respectively, were logged in the national capital.
The city had registered 321 coronavirus cases and 1 death on 6 March, and 312 cases and 1 fatality on 5 March. A total of 585 Covid cases were reported in Delhi on 1 January and 384 cases on 4 January. The daily coronavirus count had dropped to 306 on 11 January and risen again to 386 on 12 January, according to official figures.
The numbers had started to come down subsequently. On 26 February, the month’s highest daily count of 256 cases was recorded in the city.
With today’s fresh Covid cases, Delhi’s caseload mounted to 6,42,870, the bulletin stated. The number of active coronavirus cases in the city rose to 2,093 from yesterday’s 2,020. Health experts and doctors have attributed the fresh uptick in coronavirus infections to people turning complacent and not following Covidappropriate behaviour while “assuming that all is well now”.
Today’s cases were detected out of 72,031 tests including 46,135 RT-PCR tests and 25,896 rapid antigen tests, the bulletin said. The number of Covid patients under home isolation rose to 1,097 from yesterday’s 1028.
The Covid patients who recovered during the past 24 hours numbered 356, with the total number of such recoveries in the city rising to 6,29,841 so far.
There were 488 containment zones in the city now, the bulletin added.
As Delhi continues to witness an uptick in Covid cases afresh, health minister Satyendar Jain today however said that its positivity rate is still less than one per cent, “much lower” compared to the figures in Maharashtra and Kerala.
He asserted that the Delhi government was on “full vigil” to combat the Covid pandemic. Jain told reporters that the figures of over 400 cases per day suddenly were “not alarming”.
“The positivity rate in Delhi in November was about 15 per cent. It came down to less than 5 per cent first and then to less that 1 per cent, and for the last two months, it is still below 1 per cent, which is much lower than what is being recorded in cities in Maharashtra and Kerala,” he said.
Jain said there was a “stark difference” in the number of cases reported in Delhi and states like Maharashtra and Kerala, adding that the positivity rate recorded in Maharashtra was “about 10 per cent”, while in Delhi it was hovering around 0.5 per cent. “We are fully prepared and on full vigil,” Delhi health minister said, adding that over 70,000-80,000 tests were being conducted a day.
“We are quite alert, tests are being being conducted on a large scale. We are well within the cut-off mark, and are on the safer side, concerning the positivity rate. Delhi alone is conducting Covid tests five times that of what is being conducted in all of India,” Jain also stated.
(With inputs from PTI)