Delhi sees 917 new Covid cases, 3 more deaths; positivity rate at 19.2%

The fresh cases came out of 4,775 tests, the health department said in its latest bulletin

Delhi on Tuesday reported 917 new Covid cases with a positivity rate of 19.20 per cent, highest in over 200 days, and three more deaths due to the infection, according to data shared by the city health department.

The capital logged less than 1,000 cases after a fortnight.

On August 1, Delhi had logged 822 cases with a positivity rate of 11.41 per cent and two fatalities.

The lower number of cases could be attributed to the lesser number of tests conducted the previous day -- 4,775.

The Delhi government has been conducting around 16,000 to 17,000 tests on a daily basis but officials say on Sunday and gazette holidays, people tend to come out less to get tested.

With August 15 being a gazette holiday, the number of people visiting testing centres was lower than other days, they said.

However, the positivity rate was the highest since January 21, when Delhi had recorded a positivity rate of 21.48 per cent and 12,306 cases along with 43 fatalities due to the viral disease.

Delhi LG VK Saxena on Tuesday appealed to people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour since the pandemic is far from over.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia asked people to take precautionary dose of COVID-19 vaccines since those who have taken them were safer from the infection than others, amid slow pace of inoculation with the third dose.

With the fresh infections and fatalities, Delhi's caseload went up to 19,86,739 and the death toll to 26,392, the bulletin said.

On Monday, the capital had reported 1,227 cases with a positivity rate of 14.57 per cent, while eight more people died due to the disease.

Before this, the city logged more than 2,000 cases daily for 12 consecutive days. Delhi on Sunday reported 2,162 cases with a positivity rate of 12.64 per cent and five fatalities.

On Saturday, it logged nine deaths due to COVID-19 and 2,031 cases with a positivity rate of 12.34 per cent.

On Friday, it saw 10 deaths, the highest in six months, and 2,136 cases with a positivity rate of 15.02 per cent.

The national capital recorded 12 deaths due to COVID-19 on February 13. Delhi on Thursday reported 2,726 fresh cases, the highest in nearly six-and-a-half months, and six fatalities due to the viral disease, while the positivity rate stood at 14.38 per cent.

There are 6,867 active cases in the capital, down from 7,519 the previous day.

As many as 5,387 patients are in home isolation, the bulletin said.

Of the 9,416 beds reserved for COVID-19 patients in various Delhi hospitals, 588 were occupied. Beds at Covid care centres and Covid health centres were lying vacant, it said.

There are 326 containment zones in the city, it added.

Amid a spike in cases, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had last week said though the cases were on the rise, there was no need to panic as most of them were mild in nature.

Despite the rise in the positivity rate, the city government is not implementing the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) devised by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority since hospital admissions are low.

The GRAP came into force in August last year, stipulating measures to be taken by the government in accordance with the positivity rate and bed occupancy for locking and unlocking of various activities.

The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi touched the record high of 28,867 on January 13 this year during the third wave of the pandemic.

The city recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the third wave of the pandemic.