Capital records 805 fresh cases, 17 deaths in last 24 hrs
New Delhi: Delhi recorded 805 fresh coronavirus cases on Monday, the lowest in over two months, taking the infection tally to 1,38,482, authorities said on Monday. According to the official health bulletin, 10,133 tests — 3,904 RTCPR and 6,229 Rapid Antigen — were conducted in the last 24 hours.
On average, 18,000-19,000 tests were being conducted daily since testing was ramped up significantly in mid-June. The number of tests conducted a day before was also significantly low — 12,730 — due to Eid al-Adha. So far, 10,73,802 tests have been conducted in Delhi, officials said.
On May 27, the count of fresh cases stood at 792. A day after, the figure went up to 1,024. Since then the Capital had witnessed a spurt in COVID-19 cases till the beginning of July when the cases started to decline with the Central district here claiming that they had become the first to have flattened the curve.
However, with 17 fatalities, the death toll mounted to 4,021 on Monday, according to the bulletin.
There are 10,207 active cases and the recovery rate and the positivity rate stand at 89.72 per cent and 7.94 per cent respectively. The bulletin said 5,577 people are recovering in home isolation.
Meanwhile, the R-value, or reproduction number, for COVID-19 has fallen below one in Delhi, indicating a slowdown in the spread of the disease, according to a recent study.
A modelling study published in the journal Statistics & Applications found the current R-value for Delhi is 0.66 while it is 0.81 for Mumbai and 0.86 for Chennai, lower than the national average of 1.16.
R-value is the number of people getting infected by an already infected person on an average. Andhra Pradesh has the highest R-value of 1.48 in the entire country right now.
Explaining the Delhi figure of 0,66 to illustrate the concept, Sitabhra Sinha, professor of physics at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) in Chennai who led the study, said this means every group of 100 infected persons in the city can currently pass on the infection to another 60 people on an average.
Furthermore, as part of its efforts to allow economic activity without compromising on public health, the Health and Family Welfare Department on Monday issued an order prohibiting the use of Hookah and other hookah-like devices - with and without tobacco - in all public places, including hotels and restaurants until further notice.
The order mentioned that smokers are likely to be more vulnerable to COVID-19 as the act of smoking means the fingers and possibly the contaminated cigarettes are in contact with lips which increases the chances of infection. Smokers may already have lung diseases which increases their risk of serious infection.
"Smoking products such as water pipes often involve the sharing of mouthpieces and hoses, which could facilitate the transmission of Covid-19 in communal and social settings," the order stated. Conditions that increase oxygen needs will put patients at higher risk of developing pneumonia.
