With 130 more fatalities, city logs lowest death count since April 15

New Delhi: Delhi recorded 130 COVID-19-related fatalities on Wednesday, the lowest since April 15, while 1,491 new cases were reported as the positivity rate dipped to nearly two-month low of 1.93 per cent, according to the daily health bulletin.

The number of fresh infections in a single day (1,491) is the lowest since March 24, when Delhi had reported 1,254 cases.

This is the fourth day in a row when the daily cases in the national Capital have remained below 2,000. "Positivity down to 1.93% and total positive cases come down to 1,491. These are lowest numbers in last 2 months. We still need to take all precautions and follow Covid appropriate behaviour," Health Minister Satyendar Jain tweeted.

He added that the fall in count of daily COVID-19 cases and the shrinking positivity rate in Delhi can said to be the results of the lockdown imposed in the national Capital to combat the pandemic.

In the meantime, when asked, CM Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday, "A lockdown cannot be extended indefinitely. It has hit economic activity and businesses we will decide how to go about reopening."

While extending the ongoing lockdown till May 31, Kejriwal had on Saturday said his government will start the unlock process from next week if Covid cases keep declining.

The number of beds available, are also in large number now, and about one-third of the ICU beds are also vacant, he added.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths reported on Wednesday (130) is the lowest since April 15 when the national Capital had witnessed 112 fatalities.

The positivity rate of 1.93 per cent is also the lowest since March 27, when it stood at 1.70 per cent, according to the data made available.

The national Capital had recorded 1,568 cases and 156 fatalities on Tuesday, while the positivity rate came down marginally to 2.14 per cent.

According to the latest health bulletin, the 130 new fatalities pushed the death toll to 23,695.

Since April 19, both daily cases and single-day death count had been spiralling up with over 28,000 cases and 277 deaths recorded on April 20; rising to 306 fatalities on April 22.

The number of active cases stands at 19,148, down from 21,739, a day ago. The number of home isolation patients dipped to 10,079 on Wednesday from 11,915 a day ago while the number of containment zones dropped to 36,873 from 39,640 on Tuesday, the bulletin said.