Delhi records 19 COVID cases, lowest since April 15 last year; zero death

This is the 12th time since the start of the second wave of the COVID-19 in the national capital that zero fatality has been logged in a day.
Representational Image. (File Photo | Shekhar Yadav, EPS)
Representational Image. (File Photo | Shekhar Yadav, EPS)

NEW DELHI: No death due to COVID-19 was recorded in Delhi on Saturday, the second consecutive day the daily fatality count stood nil, while 19 new cases, the lowest since April 15 last year, were also reported here, according to data shared by the city health department.

This is the 12th time since the start of the second wave of the COVID-19 in the national capital that zero fatality has been logged in a day.

On July 18, July 24, July 29, August 2, August 4, August 8, August 11, August 12, August 13, August 16 and August 20 too, no death was recorded due to COVID-19, according to official data.

On March 2 this year, the national capital had reported zero death due to the virus.

On that day, the number of single-day infections stood at 217 and the positivity rate was 0.33 per cent.

The second wave swept the city during April-May period.

On Saturday, 19 new cases were recorded as the positivity rate dropped to 0.03 per cent, according to the latest bulletin.

According to covid19India. org, a crowdsourced initiative that collects data on COVID-19 and vaccination in India, Delhi had recorded 17 cases on April 15, 2020.

On Friday, 57 new cases were reported with a positivity rate of 0.08 per cent.

Twenty-five cases of COVID-19 and two deaths due to the infection were recorded on Thursday, while the positivity rate had stood at 0.04 per cent, according to official figures.

On Wednesday, the city had registered 36 cases and four fatalities, while the positivity rate was 0.05 per cent.

The infection rate which had reached to 36 per cent in the last week of April, has now come down to 0.03 per cent.

On February 16, ninety-four people were diagnosed Covid positive while the daily tally was 96 on January 27, according to official figures.

Despite fall in daily cases in the last several days, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently cautioned that the chances of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic were quite real, and asserted that his government was preparing on a "war-footing" to combat it.

Delhi had been reeling under a brutal second wave of the pandemic, claiming a massive number of lives daily, and the oxygen supply shortage issue at various hospitals had added to the woes.

Since April 19, both daily cases and single-day deaths count had been spiralling up, with over 28,000 cases and 277 deaths recorded on April 20; rising to 306 fatalities on April 22.

On May 3, the city registered a record 448 deaths, according to official data.

However, the number of cases have shown a downward trend and the positivity rate too has been shrinking in the last several weeks.

The number of deaths per day, has also been showing a decline in the last several days.

On May 15, Kejriwal had said, "The cases are reducing in Delhi slowly and steadily, and I hope it diminishes completely and does not rise again.

However, we are not going to become negligent in anyway", while sounding a tone of caution.

Following the relaxations in norms, the Delhi Metro is running with full seating capacity from July 26, with still no provision for standing travel for commuters.

A total of 59,740 tests, including 47,534 RT-PCR tests and 12,206 rapid antigen tests, were conducted a day ago, according to the health bulletin issued on Saturday.

The number of cumulative cases on Friday stood at 14,37,293.

Over 14.11 lakh patients have recovered from the infection.

The number of active cases decreased to 430 on Saturday from 459 a day before, as per the bulletin.

The number of people under home isolation was 132 on Saturday while it was 135 a day before, and the number of containment zones slightly increased to 239 from 237 on Friday, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, a total of 1,21,318 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in the national capital on Friday, according to the Delhi government's vaccination bulletin.

The bulletin issued on Saturday showed that 90,882 people received their first dose while 30,436 were administered the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Friday.

The city has administered 1,22,37,895 vaccine doses so far, of which 87,77,612 were first doses and 34,60,283 second doses, it showed.

As of Saturday morning, the national capital had only four days of vaccine stock left, the bulletin claimed.

Delhi had a balance stock of 5,35,460 doses, of which 3,57,930 doses were of Covishield and 1,77,530 of Covaxin.

The national capital has 915 vaccination centres with a capacity of inoculating 1,77,496 beneficiaries a day.

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