Positivity rate drops below 2%; cases, death & home isolation counts falling

New Delhi: Delhi recorded 1,617 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with over 85,000 tests conducted while the positivity rate dropped to 1.9 per cent, authorities said.

The death toll rose to 10,115 with 41 more fatalities, they said.

The positivity rate between December 3-7 had successively dipped to 4.96 per cent, 4.78 per cent, 4.2 per cent, 3.68 per cent an 3.15 per cent respectively.

However, on December 8 it had risen to 4.23 per cent, falling again to 3.42 per cent on December 9 and 2.46 per cent on December 10.

It had risen to 3.33 per cent on December 11 and fell to 2.64 per cent on December 12, and rose marginally again to 2.74 on December 13, and fell to 2.15 per cent on December 14.

These 1,617 fresh cases came out of 85,105 tests conducted the previous day, including 42,056 RT-PCR tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

Forty-one fatalities were recorded on Tuesday, pushing the toll in the national capital to 10,115, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 situation in the national Capital has improved in the last several days, with low number of cases and reduction in death count, and the daily positivity rate staying below 5 per cent since December 3.

Delhi recorded 1,376 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday, the lowest in over three-and-a-half months, even as the death toll rose to 10,074 with 60 new fatalities. The number of cases and the single-day fatality count now indicate a marked improvement in the situation since the third wave of the pandemic had hit the city in November.

The highest single-day spike 8,593 cases till date was reported on November 11. On November 18, 7,486 COVID-19 cases were recorded with 133 new fatalities, the highest single-day death count till date here. However, on December 13 only 33 fatalities were recorded, the lowest since September 21, when it stood at 32. Though the absolute number of death cases have shown intermittent rise, relatively, the fatalities have come down to much lower figures.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday had tweeted that the national capital had the "least case fatality ratio at 1.6", compared to Ahmedabad's at 4, Mumbai at 3.8, Kolkata at 2 and Chennai at 1.8.

"Cases are falling, and death count in a day is lowest in the last 40 days. The situation has improved and we can definitely say the third wave of the pandemic here is on the wane. It is not over but on the wane," he had said on December 10 when 50 fatalities were recorded.

Soon after the third wave of the pandemic hit the national capital, daily cases had surged and containment zones count also kept mounting. The positivity rate which had stood at 8.23 per cent on October 26 had spiralled to 15.26 per cent on November 8. However, since first week of November, the positivity rate has gradually fallen and the figure stood at 2.15 per cent on December 14, according to official data.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government told the Delhi high court on Tuesday that it has decided to continue with its earlier order reserving 80% of the ICU beds in 33 private hospitals in the city and a decision on the same will be taken after 10 days as currently the "number of COVID-19 cases are fluctuating on a daily basis". Noting the submission made by Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, on

behalf of the state, a single judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla asked the Delhi government to place the outcome of further consideration on an affidavit before posting the matter for December 23.