The national capital recorded 86 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus infection, and five deaths due to the disease on Saturday, according to data shared by the health department here. The positivity rate slipped to 0.11 per cent, down from 0.13 per cent on Friday.
The five new fatalities have pushed the death toll in the city to 24,988, the latest bulletin said. On Friday, Delhi had reported 93 cases and two deaths. On February 16, 94 people had been diagnosed Covid positive, while the daily tally was 96 on January 27, according to official figures. The infection rate which had reached 36 per cent in the last week of April, has come down below 0.20 per cent now.
Despite fall in daily cases in the last several days, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently cautioned that the chances of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic were quite real, while he asserted that his government was preparing on a "war-footing" to combat it. Delhi had 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 3, the city registered a record 448 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 per day, has also been showing a decline in the last couple of days.
On May 15, Kejjriwal 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 76,619 tests, including 54,103 RT-PCR tests and 22,516 rapid antigen tests, were conducted a day ago, according to the health bulletin on Saturday.
The number of cumulative cases on Saturday stood at 14,34,460. Over 14 lakh patients have recovered from the virus. The number of active cases decreased to 1,016 on Saturday from 1,041 a day before, as per the bulletin.
The number of people under home isolation decreased to 305 from 313 on Friday, while the number of containment zones dropped to 738 from 1,288 a day before, the bulletin added.
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