As many as 1,652 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Delhi in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 1,18,645, stated a health bulletin released by the Delhi government on Thursday.

Also, 58 more deaths have been reported, taking the total number of deaths to 3,545.

Of the total cases, 97,693 people have recovered and there are 17,407 active cases currently.

Since June 23, when the new cases almost touched 4,000 – the highest so far – the number of new cases has been dropping and it has been less than 3,000 for the past 20 days.

The number of cases is less compared to the spike witnessed in June. But of the total 20,158 tests done in the past 24 hours, over 71.08% were rapid antigen tests, which have shown a low positivity rate compared to RT-PCR tests. The positivity rate, which is the percentage of people who test positive, has dropped from 12.2% on July 1 to 8.1% on Thursday.

The active cases have been decreasing since July 1. The number of active cases was 27,007 on July 1 and saw a dip of 35.5% to reach 17,407 on Thursday.

Also, the number of people admitted to COVID-19 hospitals has been steadily decreasing for the past 14 days. On July 1, a total of 5,892 beds in COVID-19 hospitals were occupied and it has decreased steadily to reach 3,819 on Thursday.

The number of COVID-19 positive people in home isolation has also seen a dip from 16,703 on July 1 to 9,652.

The number of containment zones in the Capital is 658.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has decided to operationalise 200 beds at under-construction Ambedkar Hospital. “All procurement/sourcing of logistics, supplies, structure and manpower for management of COVID-19 shall be done on nomination basis u/s 50 of Disaster Management Act. 2005,” an official order said.