Delhi records 648 Covid-19 cases, five more deaths

Delhi on Sunday recorded 648 fresh COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 4.29 per cent, while five more people succumbed to the viral disease, according to data shared by the health department here. This is the fourth consecutive day when the daily case count is less than 1,000.With the fresh infections and fatalities, Delhi’s caseload climbed to 19,37,013 and the death toll increased to 26,271, the health department bulletin said. The fresh cases on Sunday came out of 15,103 tests conducted the previous day, it said.

The capital on Saturday logged 678 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 3.98 per cent and two fatalities. On Friday, it saw 813 cases with a positivity rate of 5.30 per cent and three deaths. The day before, it had reported 865 cases with a positivity rate of 4.45 per cent and no death. Of the 9,498 beds for COVID-19 patients in Delhi hospitals, only 198 were occupied on Sunday, down from 224 a day ago. Beds at Covid care centres and Covid health centres are lying vacant, the bulletin said. The number of active cases in Delhi stood at 3,268, down from 3,410 a day ago. As many as 2,459 patients are under home isolation, it said. There are 370 containment zones in Delhi, it added.

Delhi has reported a few cases of BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron, which are highly transmissible, but experts have said there is no need to panic as they don’t cause severe infection. The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi had touched the record high of 28,867 on January 13 during the third wave of the pandemic. The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the third wave of the pandemic.