Capital records 158 cases & 1 death

New Delhi: Delhi recorded 158 fresh COVID-19 cases and one fatality on Friday, even as the positivity rate stood at 0.26 per cent, authorities said. With this, the death toll from coronavirus infection in the capital went up to 10,897. On Thursday, 130 cases and two deaths were registered. No death due to COVID-19 was recorded in Delhi on Wednesday, the third time single-day fatality count stood nil in February.

On February 9 too, no fatality from coronavirus infection was registered in the national capital, first time this month, and after a gap of nearly nine months. No death from COVID-19 was recorded on Saturday as well. On Friday, Delhi recorded 158 fresh COVID-19 cases, while the positivity rate stood at 0.26 per cent, authorities said, adding the infection tally in the city rose to 6,37,445, according to the latest health

bulletin issued by the city government.

One fatality was registered on Friday, taking the death toll in the city to 10,897, it said.

Delhi recorded 94 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the lowest in over nine months.

The national capital had recorded 96 coronavirus cases on January 27, that time the lowest in over nine months, and the first time the daily incidence count had stood below the 100-mark in that month.

Also, on February 5 and February 7, the fatality counts were two on both days, same as on February 2. These new 158 cases came out of the 60,836 tests conducted the previous day, according to the health bulletin.

The active cases tally on Friday stood at 1053, the same figure as the previous day, according to the bulletin.

Meanwhile, amid the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive, the Delhi government on Friday said healthcare workers need not report to work on the day they are being vaccinated and they will be considered 'on duty' provided they submit proof of vaccination.

Keeping in view the fact that beneficiaries may have to travel to designated healthcare facilities for vaccination and they may experience mild pain after administration of vaccine besides mild body ache and fever (in few cases), it may not be feasible for them to report to work on the day of vaccination and have a productive day in terms of the transaction of day-to-day business, an official order said.

The matter has been considered by the Delhi government and it has been decided that healthcare personnel working in Delhi government facilities "need not attend office on the day they are vaccinated and they may be treated 'on duty' on submission of the proof of vaccination to the parent department", it said.

Coronavirus vaccine shots were administered to 24,321 beneficiaries in Delhi on Friday.