43 Covid deaths reported in a day, positivity down to 21.48%

New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday said it seems that the peak of the third COVID-19 wave has gone past in the national capital, even as he cautioned that the city is not out of the danger zone yet. The health minister's remarks came as the city reported 43 Covid-19 deaths in a day as the number of new cases came down to 12,306 with a daily positivity rate of 21.48 per cent (also lower than the day before).

Interacting with reporters, Jain said Delhi saw a record surge in the number of daily Covid cases recently with over 28,000 cases registered in a day and the positivity rate too had gone beyond 30 per cent, which the government now believes was the peak of this wave of infections.

"That spike which Delhi saw can be considered as the peak of the Covid wave and it seems that we are past the peak now... The number of daily cases has come down in the last few days. Over 13,000 cases were recorded yesterday with a positivity rate of close to 24 per cent. And today, the number of cases is lesser than that," he said.

The national capital reported 28,867 fresh COVID-19 cases on January 13, the sharpest single-day spike here since the outbreak of the pandemic, with a positivity rate of 29.21 per cent. On January 14, the positivity rate had increased to a little over 30 per cent but this was lower than the highest positivity rate recorded during the second wave last year.

Jain, however, cautioned that the peak of the Covid wave may have gone past in Delhi, but "still we cannot say that we are out of the danger zone yet and we need to watch the trend".

As per Thursday's bulletin, active cases in the city have now come down to 68,730 even as the death toll kept rising. Significantly, the number of occupied Covid hospital beds started coming down on Thursday even as the real-time figures showed 2,635 beds occupied as of 7:30 pm.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also reiterated on Thursday that hospitalisations during this wave were significantly lower than what was seen during the brutal second wave.

Asked if some restrictions will be eased, the minister said proactive measures have also led to the fall in the number of cases and for any decision on easing restrictions, "we will have to monitor the situation first in the coming days".

On a reduction in the number of tests to detect the infection, the health minister insisted that Delhi is still conducting more daily tests than other states and that "no one is being denied any test, if needed".