Positivity rate drops to 17.7%; 70,200 tests conducted in a day

New Delhi: Even as the city's daily positivity rate came further down to 17.76 per cent on Tuesday from the around 70,200 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that one cannot be at ease until the positivity rate in the city dropped to below 5 per cent.

The Capital on Tuesday reported 12,481 new infections and 347 more deaths from the virus, taking the city's death toll past the 20,000-mark.

Over 70,000 tests were conducted to detect COVID cases in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said, adding that more than 1.40 lakh people were inoculated against the disease in the said period and of the 22,953 beds in hospitals, 3,890 are vacant.

The bulletin showed that active cases in the city had come down to 83,809, of which according to officials, 51,480 are recovering at home.

The number of cases has dipped to around 12,500 from a high of around 28,000. The positivity rate has also reduced to 19 percent from a maximum of 36 percent in April, Jain told reporters.

"But we cannot be at ease till the positivity rate drops below five percent and the number of new infections is less than 3,000 to 4,000, Jain said.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Monday expressed hope that the peak of the second wave of the pandemic in Delhi has passed. However, no concessions can be allowed just yet, he had said.

Jain said on Tuesday the Delhi government has made all the preparations to ramp up vaccination but there are no vaccines available.

Jain said the bed occupancy in the capital rose to around 22,000 this time as compared to the previous high of around 9,500.

The situation with respect to oxygen supply has improved, but around 20,000 beds are still occupied, he said.

The minister ascribed the dip in the number of testing over the few days to the restricted movement of people due to the lockdown.

Around 80,000 tests are being conducted daily, he said.

Earlier, the average number of tests was around 1 lakh, according to government data.

On Tuesday, Delhi logged 12,481 infections with a positivity rate of 17.7, the lowest since April 14, when it stood at 15.9 percent.