New Delhi: The national capital recorded 66 fresh COVID-19 cases, and one death due to the disease on Friday, while the positivity rate dropped to 0.09 per cent, according to data shared by the Health Department here. The single new fatality has pushed the death toll in the city to 25,023, according to the latest bulletin. On Thursday, Delhi had logged 72 cases and one death, with a positivity rate of 0.10 per cent.
On Wednesday, Delhi had recorded 77 cases and one death, while on Tuesday the daily infection tally was 76 with two deaths. On February 16, ninety-four people were diagnosed Covid positive, while the daily tally was 96 on January 27, according to official figures.
The infection rate, which reached 36 per cent in the last week of April, has come down to 0.10 per cent now. Last Friday, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had passed a colour-coded response action plan under which curbs will be implemented in accordance with the severity of the COVID-19 situation to deal with a possible third wave of the pandemic. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal last week had inaugurated a genome-sequencing laboratory at the ILBS hospital here and said the people of Delhi will highly benefit from the facility.
He had said that these labs will detect the lethality of the coronavirus variants and help the government prepare accordingly. Despite the fall in daily cases in the last several days, Kejriwal had recently cautioned that the chances of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic were quite real and that his government was preparing on a "war-footing" to combat it.
Delhi was reeling under a brutal second wave of the pandemic that swept the country, claiming a massive number of lives daily, with the recent oxygen supply shortage issue at -hospitals, adding to the woes. Since April 19, both daily cases and single-day deaths count had spiralled up, with over 28,000 cases and 277 deaths recorded on April 20; rising to 306 fatalities on April 22. On May 3, the city registered a record 448 deaths, as per 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 per day, has also been showing a decline in the last couple of days. 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.
The Delhi government had earlier announced reopening of restaurants with 50 per cent capacity and one weekly market per municipal zone from June 14. With close gathering of shoppers in markets and restaurants resuming business amid phased unlock in the national capital, doctors have cautioned that Delhi could face a "worse than second wave situation" of COVID-19 if people do not adhere to safety norms or lower their guards.
A total of 76,459 tests, including 52,223 RT-PCR tests and 24,236 rapid antigen tests, were conducted a day ago, according to the health bulletin on Friday. The number of cumulative cases on Thursday stood at 14,35,419. Over 14 lakh patients have recovered from the virus.
The number of active cases decreased to 657 on Friday from 671 a day before, as per the bulletin. The number of people under home isolation slightlly dropped to 228 from 230 on Thursday, while the number of containment zones dropped to 418 from 439 a day before, the bulletin said.
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