COVID-19 in Delhi: 486 fresh cases, 19 deaths; positivity rate 0.63 pc

Delhi recorded 486 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the sixth time the daily infection count stood below the 500-mark in January, while the positivity rate dipped to 0.63 per cent, officials said.

The infection tally in the city stood to 6.28 lakh and the death toll mounted to 10,644, they said.

The active cases tally on Thursday dropped to 4,168 from 4,481 the previous day.

The city had recorded 654 cases on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 0.88 per cent, the only time the daily infection count has crossed the 500-mark in the first seven days of January.

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

From December 21-23, the daily case count had been below the 1000-mark. On December 21, 803 cases were reported; 939 on December 22 and 871 cases on December 23.

However, on December 24, 1,063 cases were recorded, dropping again to 758 on December 25 and 655 on December 26. On December 27, 757 cases were recorded while on December 28, the daily cases count was 564, the lowest in the last five months.

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

This month, 585 cases were reported on January 1, 494 on January 2, 424 cases on January 3, 384 on January 4, and 442 cases on January 5.

These 486 new cases resulted from the 77,522 tests conducted the previous day, including 43,347 RT-PCR tests and 34,175 rapid antigen tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

The bulletin said the total number of cases has climbed to 6,28,838.  Meanwhile, Union health minister chaired a meeting with the health ministers of all states and UTs regarding the COVID-19 vaccination dry run to be conducted on January 8 in all districts of the country, the bulletin said.

Authorities will on Friday conduct the second dry run for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in Delhi that will span across various districts of the national capital, officials said.

These districts include, South Delhi, South East Delhi and North West Delhi, they said. The first dry run was held on January 2.

Amid improvement in the COVID-19 situation here, medical colleges under the Delhi government have been ordered to be re-opened, but physical classes will be resumed in a phased manner for different academic batches, official said.

Also, two Delhi government hospitals have been turned into non-COVID facilities, according to an official order.

According to the Thursday bulletin, out of the total number of 13,838 beds in COVID hospitals, 12,228 are vacant.

It said that 115 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights.

The Delhi government had significantly ramped up testing in the past few weeks, with the count several times crossing the 60,000-mark.

The number of tests done per million as on Wednesday was over 4.8 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 91 lakh.

The bulletin said 6,14,026 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far.

The number of containment zones in Delhi dropped to 3,118 on Thursday from 3,202 the previous day, authorities said.

The number of people in home isolation dropped to 2,015 on Thursday from 2,067 the previous day.