Covid-19 cases in Delhi stagnate around 700 a day, positivity rate less than 1.5%

The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers a Covid-19 outbreak to be under control when a positivity rate of 5% or less is maintained over two weeks.

With cases going below the levels seen in December end, the number of deaths with the infection has also come down, with five deaths added to the toll on Thursday. Single-digit daily toll has been reported in the city over the last four days as per the bulletin. Almost all deaths in the current wave of the pandemic were in cases of people who had other severe disease but also happened to test positive for the infection.

The viral infection has killed 26,091 persons in the city since the pandemic started. There were 226 deaths with Covid-19 reported in February and 758 in the month of January.

At its peak, on a single day, there were 45 deaths with the infection reported during the current wave. This is much less than the 448 deaths reported on a single day on May 3 last year during the Delta variant-driven wave.

There are still 368 patients, with Covid-19 or suspected to have the infection, admitted to hospitals across the city; of them 40 persons are on ventilators. The Delhi government will soon start de-escalating the number of beds earmarked for Covid-19. Indian Express had reported that the government was waiting to see what happens as schools and colleges reopen.

“It was expected that this wave would subside quickly. A huge chunk of the population had been exposed to Covid-19 during the Delta wave and most have since received the vaccine also. This is the reason that there were fewer hospitalisations and deaths too,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung hospital.