Delhi relieves as Covid cases fall to three digits

New Delhi: The national capital region has got a reason to relax after several months of battling Covid 19 pandemic as the latest health bulletin revealed that the positivity rate of Delhi has fallen to 1.29 per cent.

On Monday, the state recorded 803 new cases whereas 32 people succumbed to the contagion.

Meanwhile, 1,669 patients recovered from the disease and 62,440 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, the bulletin showed.

The latest figures of the case tally now stands at 6,17,808 while the death toll has reached 10,304. Of the tests conducted in the last 24 hours, 34,288 were done through RT-PCR and 28,152 were Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT). The capital city has conducted 78,62,807 tests so far, according to the bulletin by the Delhi Health Department.

Currently, 2,909 out of 18,786 beds are occupied in the hospitals, 112 out of 7,792 beds in the dedicated Covid Care Centres and 26 out of 562 beds in the dedicated Covid Health Centres. Meanwhile, 5,405 people are in home isolation, as per the data shared by the Delhi government.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stated on Saturday that "third wave of Covid-19 seems to have been brought under control in Delhi".

"There was a time in November when the daily cases went up to nearly 8,600. But, even then it wasn't a panicky situation in Delhi, and beds were available. We fought it all together. The fresh cases count today is 1,133, the official report will soon be out," he said in an online briefing.

The highest single-day spike till date, 8,593 cases, was reported on November 11.

Kejriwal said the situation in Delhi has improved significantly as the positivity rate had gone up to 15.26 per cent as in early November while it is now down to 1.3 per cent, one of the lowest so far in Delhi, and nationally too.

However, he cautioned against complacency about the prevailing situation and advised to observe safety norms as per the Covid protocol.