Delhi reports lowest daily Covid cases since March; positivity rate 1.25%
Delhi on Sunday recorded as many as 946 fresh coronavirus cases, the lowest single-day spike since March. With this, the tally of COVID-19 cases in the national capital has reached over 14.25 lakh, while the death toll mounted to 24,151. As many as 78 fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.
This is the second consecutive day when the daily cases count has gone below the 1,000-mark since March 22 when the tally was 888. On March 21, 823 cases were recorded, while the highest daily positivity rate was over 36 per cent on April 22.
The COVID-19 positivity rate in the national capital stood at 1.25 per cent.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said that about 900 cases in a day have emerged after a long time and "I hope that as and when the cases decrease in the upcoming weeks, we will continue to unlock further. We want the economic activities to come back on track so that the economy can be revived".
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain tweeted and shared the health bulletin on Saturday, and emphasised that the daily cases had dropped below the 1,000-mark again, even as he appealed to people to continue to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour.
According to a health bulletin issued by the Delhi government, 75,440 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.
On May 15, Kejriwal had said, "The virus is reducing in Delhi slowly and steadily, and I hope it diminishes completely and does not rise again.
However, we are not going to become negligent in anyway", while sounding a tone of caution.
On Friday, he said it was time to start the unlock process, but warned that if coronavirus cases start rising again "we will have to stop the unlock exercise", and appealed to people not to step out unless it is absolutely necessary.
Delhi has been reeling under a brutal second wave of the pandemic that is sweeping the country, claiming a massive number of lives daily, with the recent oxygen supply shortage issue at various hospitals adding to the woes.
Since April 19, both daily cases and single-day deaths count had been spiralling up, with over 28,000 cases and 277 deaths recorded on April 20; rising to 306 fatalities on April 22.
On May 2, the city registered a record 407 deaths, according to the official data.
However, the number of cases have shown a downward trend and the positivity rate too has been shrinking in the last several days.
The number of deaths reported on Thursday -- 117 -- was the lowest since April 15 when the national capital had registered 112 fatalities, while the positivity rate (1.52 per cent) was the lowest since March 23, when it had stood at 1.31 per cent, the official data stated.
The case tally stands at 14,25,592 in the national capital, including 13,89,341 patients who have either been discharged or have migrated or recovered. The number of active cases is 12,100, of which 5,817 are in home isolation.
(With PTI Inputs)
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