NEW DELHI: The national capital over the past few days has been witnessing a decrease in positivity rate of coronavirus.
Since June 18, tests conducted per day have gone up with the inclusion of both RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests.
Simultaneously, the count of new cases registered every day appears to have gone down in comparison to number of tests done.
As per the state government issued daily health bulletin, the city has seen a significant drop in positivity rate over the last 10 days. Starting from June 24 when the positivity rate was at 23.80 per cent, the number as on July 2 has come down to 11.39 per cent.
Delhi recorded its highest single day case spike on June 22 when 3,947 fresh cases were reported (as published on June 23 health bulletin). From the next day onwards new cases registered started coming down. Since June 27, fresh cases in the city have not crossed the 3,000-mark.
Owing to this trend, a number of theories have been floated around suggesting that Delhi has already hit its Covid peak. Professor Shamika Ravi, a former member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, had tweeted “Delhi seems to have peaked... consecutive days of declining daily new cases. 7 day moving average. Another week will confirm this...(sic),”.Another city-based health expert stated that Professor Ravi’s calculation is an educated guess.
“Several activities in terms of testing and creating containment zones have been done. These interventions certainly do make sense but not a guaranteed one. In a pandemic, there is bound to be a second wave, third wave and then finally a sustained wave. There will be multiple waves of this virus and it is not going to disappear anytime soon. These days, no one talks of bending or flattening the curve, rather, the priority is to straighten it or lower the number of cases. Whenever cases will come down, the administration’s attention will be diverted and we’ll end up seeing yet another wave,” the expert added.
CM rejects idea
Rejecting theories that the city has hit its Covid peak, CM Kejriwal said that while the situation is not as alarming as projected, people should believe what theories that the city has crossed its peak.