Delhi records 4,044 new Covid-19 cases, 25 deaths; positivity rate down to 8.6 percent

Delhi on Friday reported 4,044 fresh COVID-19 cases and 25 deaths, while the positivity rate dropped slightly to 8.6 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department. With this, the national capital’s case count increased to 17,64,41 and the death toll climbed to 25,769. The number of COVID-19 tests conducted a day ago stood at 47,042, the data shared in a bulletin stated. Delhi had on Thursday reported 4,291 cases with a positivity rate of 9.56 per cent and 34 deaths. On Wednesday, it had logged 7,498 cases with a positivity rate of 10.59 per cent, and recorded 29 deaths. The number of daily cases in Delhi has been on the decline after touching a record high of 28,867 on January 13. The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the ongoing wave of the pandemic.

It took just 10 days for daily cases to drop below the 10,000-mark. With the positivity rate on a downward trend, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on January 25 had said the Delhi government did not want livelihood of people to be affected and that COVID-19 restrictions will be eased as soon as possible, while asserting that the city’s positivity rate had reduced to 10 per cent in 10 days. On January 25, the city had logged 6,028 cases with a positive rate of 10.55 per cent, and 31 fatalities due to COVID-19. The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Thursday had decided to lift weekend curfew and the odd-even system of opening non-essential shops in the city besides allowing restaurants, bars, cinema halls and theatres to reopen with 50 per cent capacity, given the improving COVID-19 situation.

There are 15,420 beds for COVID-19 patients in Delhi hospitals and 1,928 (12.50 per cent) of them are occupied. A total of 1,928 COVID-19 patients are in hospitals, the Friday health department bulletin stated. Active cases in Delhi on Friday reduced to 29,152 from 33,175 on Thursday. Also, 704 coronavirus patients were on oxygen support, out of whom 151 severe COVID-19 patient were on ventilator, as on Friday. The number of people under home isolation stood at 23,153 on Friday while it was 26,812 a day before, and the number of containment zones in the city stood at 41,095, a fall from 42,388 on Thursday, the bulletin said.