New Delhi: Delhi recorded 4,006 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 5.74 lakh, while 86 new fatalities pushed the toll from the disease to 9,260, authorities said.
These fresh cases came out of the 58,456 COVID-19 tests conducted the previous day, including 30,297 RT-PCR tests, while the positivity rate stood at 6.85 per cent, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi Health Department.
For the first time, the number of RT-PCR tests in Delhi has exceeded the number of rapid antigen tests. The active COVID-19 case count stood at 31,769 in Delhi on Tuesday, it said. The bulletin said the total number of novel coronavirus cases has climbed to 5,74,380 in the national Capital.
Meanwhile, sources on Tuesday said that the Delhi government is unlikely to go for a night curfew as the COVID-19 case positivity rate in the city has been showing a declining trend for the last few weeks.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said in a media briefing that Delhi's positivity rate has fallen by a margin of nearly 55 per cent since early November and it should reduce further in the next two weeks.
"Positivity rate in Delhi has decreased to 7.35 per cent from 15.26 per cent on November 7. There were 3,726 new cases in Delhi yesterday with a positivity rate of 7.35 per cent," he said.
Last week, the Delhi government had informed the High Court that it may decide in three to four days whether to impose night curfew in the national Capital to contain the spread of COVID-19.
"The government's decision to decide about curfew was tied to positivity rate. Since positivity rate has declined considerably meaning decreased infection, it is unlikely that the government will favour night curfew," a source in the government said.
The Ministry of Home Affairs in its guidelines issued on November 25 had said that the states and union territories based on their assessment can impose local restrictions like night curfew to check the spread of COVID-19. Jain, when asked about possibility of night curfew in Delhi, had last week told reporters that the government was keeping a close eye on the trend of infection.