A health worker takes swab sample to test for Covid-19 in New Delhi. (Express Photo: Praveen Khanna, File)The Covid-19 positivity rate in Delhi seems to have stagnated between 1.8 per cent and 2.7 per cent over the last two weeks, with 212 to 532 fresh cases being reported each day during this period, according to the daily health bulletin shared by the Delhi government. Delhi reported 373 new cases with a positivity rate – proportion of samples tested that return positive – of 2.15 per cent on Tuesday.
In comparison, the positivity rate had dropped to 0.37 per cent in March, after the Omicron-driven third wave of Covid-19 infections subsided in the country.
Monday and Tuesday also reported one death each due to the infection. This comes after the capital recorded no deaths for three consecutive days. There were a total of 35 deaths in May as compared to 23 deaths in April. The cases, along with deaths, started increasing April third week onwards due to what experts believe arelaxation of Covid-19 norms such as mandatory masking in public places.
The experts said that a slight increase was to be expected whenever all restrictions are removed. With cases increasing, Delhi brought back its mask mandates the same month.
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The increase is not owing to any change in variants. Although BA.2.12.1, a more infectious variant that is currently the dominant one in the United States, has been detected by Delhi labs, BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron that drove the country’s third wave continues to be the dominant one in Delhi.
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