335 more deaths in city as positivity settles below 25%

New Delhi: The Capital on Thursday reported 335 more deaths from COVID-19 and 19,133 new infections as the fourth wave of the pandemic rages on in Delhi. Significantly, the daily positivity rate dropped below 25 per cent for the first time in the last few weeks.

This is the third time in the last four days that the number of new cases remained below 20,000.

At 24.29 per cent, the case positivity rate is its lowest since April 16, when it was 19.7 per cent, according to government data. It was 24.6 percent on April 17.

Daily testing also saw a marginal increase in Thursday's health bulletin, according to which over 78,700 tests were conducted in 24 hours.

But with news of a more viruent strain of the virus circulating in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Thursday imposed a mandatory two-week quarantine for those coming from these southern states by train, air or road.

Although, the Delhi government has said that those who have received both doses of the vaccine and those with negative RT-PCR report (72-hour-period) would be advised to home quarantine for seven days.

And with the cases surging, the city has seen a 1,349 per cent jump in the number of containment zones in the last month, with South Delhi accounting for the maximum 21,172 such zones out of the total 47,704, according to official figures.

Northeast Delhi has 600 containment zones closely followed by East Delhi (504) which has the lowest number of such zones.

Delhi had 3,291 containment zones on April 6. The number shot up to a staggering 47,704 — an increase of over 1,349 per cent — by Tuesday.