COVID-19 in Delhi: 295 cases, lowest since May 9; positivity rate dips to 0.44 pc

Delhi recorded 295 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday, the lowest in more than eight months, even as city Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the positivity rate has slipped to an "all-time low" of 0.44 per cent.

This is also the twelfth time, the daily incidences count stood below the 500-mark in January, and the sixth consecutive day since January 10 when the figures have stood below the 400-mark.

Jain tweeted, "Lowest number of cases recorded since 9th of May 2020. Positivity rate in Delhi has been dropped to all time low of 0.44%.

Wear mask and follow social distancing to keep yourself and your family safe." The infection tally in the city stood at over 6.31 lakh and the death toll mounted to 10,732 with 10 new fatalities, they said.  On April 26, the city had recorded 293 cases, according to official data.

This month, 585 cases were reported on January 1 and 494 on January 2; 424 on January 3; 384 on January 4, and 442 on January 5; 654 on January 6; 486 on January 7 and 444 on January 8; 519 on January 9 and 399 on January 10; 306 on January 11 and 386 on January 12 and 357 on January 13 and 340 on January 14.

The active cases tally on Friday dropped to 2,795 from 2,937 the previous day, while the positivity rate dropped to 0.44 per cent.

Jain had earlier said that the positivity rate had been below one per cent for the past several days, indicating improvement in the pandemic situation here.

On December 29 and 30, the city had recorded 703 and 677 cases, respectively. On December, 31,574 cases were recorded.

These 295 new cases came out the 66,921 tests conducted the previous day, including 38,990 RT-PCR tests and 27,931 rapid antigen tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

The bulletin said that the total number of cases has climbed to 6,31,884, while the recovery rate stood at over 97 per cent.

According to the Friday bulletin, out of the total number of 11,950 beds in COVID hospitals, 10,779 are vacant.

It said that 202 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by the Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights.

The number of tests done per million as on Wednesday was over 5.1 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 97 lakh.

The bulletin said that 6,18,357 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far.

The number of containment zones in Delhi dropped to 2,451 on Friday from 2,501 the previous day, authorities said.

The number of people in home isolation dropped to 1,275 on Friday from 1,311 the previous day.