Capital sees 494 new cases, lowest in seven months

New Delhi: Delhi recorded 494 fresh COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the lowest daily rise in over seven months, and 14 new fatalities, while the positivity rate remained unchanged at 0.73 percent on Friday, authorities said.

With the Saturday numbers, the infection tally in the city rose to over 6.26 lakh and the death toll to 10,561, they said.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain tweeted that the positivity rate has been below one per cent for the past 11 days.

"First time less than 500 cases in 7 months (since 17May). Positivity reduced to 0.73% from 15.26% on 7 Nov. Positivity less than 1% for the last 11 days. Active cases reduced to 5,342 from 44456 on 13 Nov. Though 3rd wave is going down, be careful and observe all precautions," he tweeted.

Earlier in the day, the number of fresh COVID-19 cases was recorded below 20,000 in India on Saturday, taking the country's caseload to 1,03,05,788, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease crossed 99 lakh, according to the health ministry.

A total of 19,079 people tested positive for the Coronavirus infection in a day, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 1,49,218 in the country with 224 new fatalities, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 99,06,387, pushing the national recovery rate to 96.12 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stood at 1.45 per cent.

The number of active COVID-19 cases remained below three lakh for the 12th consecutive day.

There are 2,50,183 active Coronavirus cases in the country, which accounts for 2.43 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.