City sees 655 new cases & 23 deaths; over 67,000 tests conducted in a day
New Delhi: Delhi recorded 655 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest in over four months, and 23 more fatalities due to the disease on Saturday, even as the positivity rate stood at 0.98 per cent, authorities said.
The case tally mounted to over 6.22 lakh in the city and the death toll due to the coronavirus rose to 10,437, they said, adding that over 67,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted on Friday.
From December 21-23, the count of daily cases was below the 1,000-mark in the city. On Monday, 803 cases were reported, the lowest since August 17, 939 cases were recorded on Tuesday and 871 on Wednesday. However, 1,063 cases were reported on Thursday. The number again dropped to 758 on Friday.
The 655 fresh cases came out of the 67,115 tests conducted the previous day, including 40,138 RT-PCR tests and 26,977 rapid antigen tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.
On August 17, Delhi had recorded 787 COVID-19 cases. The city had reported 652 coronavirus cases on August 16.
The tally of active cases in the national Capital dropped to 6,911 on Saturday from 7,267 on Friday. The bulletin said the total number of cases has climbed to 6,22,094 in Delhi, while the recovery rate stood at over 97 per cent. The highest single-day spike in the city till date — 8,593 cases — was reported on November 11.
According to the bulletin, of the total number of 18,774 beds in COVID hospitals, 16,149 are vacant.
It said 70 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights. The Delhi government has significantly ramped up testing in the past few weeks, with the count crossing the 60,000-mark on several times.
The number of tests done per million as on Friday was over 4.35 lakh, while the total number of tests stood at over 82.7 lakh. The bulletin said 6,04,746 patients have recovered, have been discharged or have migrated from the city so far. The number of containment zones in Delhi dropped to 4,975 on Saturday from 5,001 the previous day.
