Covid-19: Delhi cases continue to dip, positivity rate drops to 14.3%; more beds free

NEW DELHI: The Covid situation in Delhi is easing gradually with the city recording 10,489 fresh Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the lowest since April 10, when the capital had reported 7,897 cases. The new cases were detected through 73,675 tests carried out in the past 24 hours at a positivity rate of 14.24%, the lowest in a month since Delhi recorded 13.14% on April 13.
Covid-19 fatalities, however, remained high at 308. The number of vacant ICU beds more than doubled to 211 on Thursday evening, compared with 84 on Wednesday evening, as per the Delhi Corona App. Over 100 were available on Thursday evening at GTB Hospital (88), where a new Covid care centre with ICU beds has been set up at an adjacent Ramlila Ground, apart from the nearby Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty hospital (24).

Meanwhile, 15,189 patients recovered in the last 24 hours. Active cases came down from 82,725 on Wednesday to 77,717. With more people recovering every day than the number of new cases reported, the count of active cases has dipped by 22% from the all-time high of 99,725 reported a fortnight ago on April 29.
Positivity rate below 20% for fourth day, 5,212 beds vacant
After a high of 36.24% recorded on April 22, the positivity rate in the capital has been on a steady decline with Thursday being the fourth day in a row that the positivity rate has been below 20%.
The steady dip in number of active cases and positivity rate has resulted in more beds being now available at hospitals and the availability of even the hard-to-find ICU beds has improved. From just 1,199 vacant hospital beds on April 30, the number has gone up to 5,212 on Thursday, according to the health bulletin shared by the Delhi government.
While 78,035 tests were carried out on Wednesday, the number came down slightly to 73,675 on Thursday, out of which 58,709 were RT-PCR tests and 14,966 were rapid antigen tests. On April 13, for instance, when Delhi last reported a lower positivity rate of 13.14%, a total of 13,468 cases had been reported from 1,02,460 tests.
Delhi’s health minister, Satyendar Jain, reiterated on Thursday that the reason for the dip in the number of tests, which hovered around one lakh a day last month, is due to the ongoing lockdown. He told reporters at a press briefing that most people are not stepping out of their homes, and as a result, a large number of random tests that used to be carried out at public places like markets earlier are no longer taking place.
The total number of deaths due to Covid-19 in the national capital has reached 20,618 and the month of May has already recorded 4,471 Covid-19 fatalities till Thursday.