Daily cases below 1K as positivity rate falls to 1.7%; 12 deaths in a day

New Delhi: Delhi on Friday reported 977 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest since December 29, and 12 more deaths while the positivity rate dropped to 1.73 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

With this, the national Capital's case count increased to 18,49,596 and the death toll climbed to 26,047, the latest health bulletin stated.

The number of COVID-19 tests conducted a day ago was 56,444, it said.

On December 29, the case count was 923 with a positivity rate of 1.29 per cent, while on December 30, the tally was 1,313 with a positivity rate of 1.73 per cent, as per official data.

The number of daily cases in Delhi has been on the decline after touching the record high of 28,867 on January 13.

The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the ongoing wave of the pandemic. It took just 10 days for daily cases to drop below the 10,000-mark.

Delhi had on January 23 reported 9,197 Covid cases with a positivity rate of 13.32 per cent and 34 deaths.

The surge in Covid cases in Delhi during the third wave of the pandemic is due to the Omicron variant of the virus which is highly transmissible.

Several families in a large number of neighbourhoods had tested positive, but medical experts have said that since the infection had happened at the same time, the recovery too has been quicker for the community as a whole.

There has been less chance of more spread of infection as people have been largely home isolated with a very little number of patients needing hospitalisation this time, they said.

There are 15,375 beds for Covid patients in Delhi hospitals and 668 (4.34 per cent) of them were occupied. A total of 668 Covid patients were in hospitals, Friday's health department bulletin stated.

The number of people under home isolation stood at 3,135 on Friday while it was 3,573 a day before, and the number of containment zones in the city stood at 19,582, a fall from 20,384 on Thursday, it said.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority is expected to meet next week to take a call on further relaxing COVID-19-related restrictions amid declining cases in the city, official sources said on Friday.

Demands have been raised by several quarters, including traders and political parties, for further relaxations such as lifting night curfew, permitting weekly markets in all municipal zones, and allowing visitors in religious places.

The DDMA meeting is expected to be held next week but a date for it is yet to be finalised, sources said.