Active Covid case count drops to half within two weeks

New Delhi: The number of active Covid-19 cases in Delhi has halved in just 12 days after rising to a high of 94,160 on January 13, while it took 21 days for the active caseload to drop by half during the second wave last year.

The third wave of the pandemic saw the active cases peaking to 94,160 on January 13. The number dropped to 42,010 by Tuesday.

During the ferocious second wave last year, active cases had risen to a high of 99,752 on April 28 and the number reduced to 45,047 by May 19.

Experts said the decline in cases is in line with their expectations.

"It was expected. The rise was very rapid. The R naught value — which indicates the spread of COVID-19 — was around 4, which means a person would infect the entire family within two days.

The recovery is faster. The incubation period is shorter, hardly two to three days. Hence, the sharp fall in the number of cases," said Director-Professor, Community Medicine Department, Maulana Azad Medical College, Nandini Sharma.

Researches suggest that Omicron has an incubation period of roughly three days as compared to the Delta variant which had an average incubation period of about four days. The original strain of COVID-19 and its early variants had an incubation period of about five days.

The Delhi government data showed there have been fewer hospitalisations due to COVID-19 this time and officials said the virus isn't the primary reason in most fatalities.

A maximum of 2,784 (17.96 per cent) of the 15,505 COVID-19 beds in hospitals were occupied on January 17. During the second wave, 20,117 (92 per cent) of the 21,839 beds were occupied on May 6.

The number of daily cases in Delhi has been declining after touching the record high of 28,867 on January 13. The capital had logged 5,760 new cases on Monday and 6,028 cases on Tuesday.

The city saw a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 15, the highest so far in the ongoing wave of the pandemic.

The test positivity rate (TPR) dipped to 10.55 per cent on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Delhi reported 7,498 fresh COVID-19 cases and 29 deaths, with the positivity rate witnessing a marginal increase to 10.59 per cent, according to data shared by the city government's health department on Wednesday.