Capital sees 86 new cases & 5 deaths
New Delhi: Delhi recorded 86 fresh COVID-19 cases and five deaths due to the disease on Saturday, according to data shared by the Health Department here.
The city's positivity rate was recorded at 0.11 per cent, down from 0.13 per cent on Friday.
The five new fatalities have pushed the death toll in the city to 24,988, as per the latest bulletin.
On Friday, Delhi had reported 93 cases of the infection and two deaths.
Meanwhile, more than 1.6 lakh Covid vaccines were administered in the national Capital on Friday, taking the total number of people who have been inoculated to over 82 lakh, the Delhi government's vaccination bulletin said.
The bulletin issued on Saturday said a total of 82,12,158 vaccines have been administered in the national Capital so far. Of them, 63,45,239 are first doses and 18,66,919 second doses, it said.
According to the city's daily vaccination bulletin, 1,60,738 people were vaccinated on Friday, out of which 1,30,487 beneficiaries received their first dose and 30,251 were given their second dose, it said.
Of the total people vaccinated on Friday, 44,512 were in the 45-60 years age group and 1,14,462 were in the 18-44 years age group, it said.
Delhi, which received 50,000 doses of Covaxin on Friday, has 4,78,000 vaccines in its balance stock, it said. This includes 2,68,000 shots of Covaxin and 2,10,000 of Covishield, it said.
According to the bulletin, the present Covid vaccines stock will last for two days.
The vaccination programme is running at 1,374 centres with a capacity of administering 2,26,552 vaccine doses daily, it added. Cases of COVID-19 might be declining steadily but as the virus is mutating, attaining that magical zero figure in Delhi is unlikely, experts have said, and predicted that coronavirus will be reduced to an endemic in the future.
The Centre, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleague Satyendar Jain had said last year that one will have to learn with coronavirus and make its prevention norms a part of our lives.
Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director of Delhi government-run LNJP Hospital said there will always be a few cases of the virus.
"Zero is an unlikely figure. The virus is mutating and it is difficult to predict it's future behaviour," he said.
Explaining why the virus has posed such a challenge, Dr Sanjeev K. Singh, Resident Medical Director, Amrita Hospitals in Faridabad said it is an mRNA virus which keeps changing its structure. "These virus is smart and just for the sake of living, it will keep mutating. Covid will be there and may not be affecting all 193 countries but it will be there.
"Coming down to zero won't be achievable. In hospitals for getting surgeries, one has to get tested for Hepatitis and HIV. Eventually, you will be tested for Covid too," he said.
Dr Gauri Agarwal, IVF expert and founder of Seeds of Innocence said keeping the 1918 pandemic as a yardstick, we know that eradicating the virus is an unrealistic possibility.
"As COVID-19 gradually becomes an endemic, likely in 12-24 months, it will probably stop being a statistic that is being watched on a daily basis. Hence, while we may see zero reportable cases, there may never be a time with actual zero cases ever."
