NEW DELHI: Delhi recorded 212 fresh COVID-19 cases and 25 fatalities on Wednesday, while the positivity rate dipped to 0.27 per cent, according to data shared by the health department here.
According to the latest health bulletin, these new fatalities pushed the death toll due to COVID-19 here to 24,876. On Tuesday, 228 cases with 0.32 per cent positivity rate, and 12 deaths were recorded.
The national capital had reported 10 fatalities due to Covid on April 3. On March 8, Delhi had recorded 239 cases and on March 9, the tally was 320, according to official figures.
The infection rate, which had reached to 36 per cent in the last week of April, has come down to below 1 per cent now.
Despite fall in daily cases in the last several days, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday had cautioned that the chances of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic were quite real, while he asserted that his government was preparing on a "war-footing" to combat it.
Delhi has been reeling under a brutal second wave of the pandemic that is sweeping the country, claiming a massive number of lives daily, with the recent oxygen supply shortage issue at various hospitals, adding 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, as per the official data. However, the number of cases have shown a downward trend and the positivity rate too has been shrinking in the last several days.
The number of deaths per day, has also been showing a decline in the last couple of days. On May 15, Kejriwal had said, "The virus is 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."
The Delhi government had on Sunday announced reopening of restaurants with 50 per cent capacity and one weekly market per municipal zone from June 14.
With close gathering of shoppers in markets and restaurants resuming business amid phased unlock in the national capital, doctors on Tuesday had cautioned that Delhi could face a "worse than second wave situation" of COVID-19 if people do not adhere to safety norms or lower their guards.
A total of 77,891 tests, including 55,417 RT-PCR tests and 22,474 rapid antigen tests, were conducted a day ago, according to the health bulletin on Wednesday. The number of cumulative cases on Wednesday stood at 14,31,710. Over 14 lakh patients have recovered from the virus.
The number of active cases decreased to 2,749 on Wednesday from 3,078 a day before, the bulletin said. The number of people under home isolation dipped to 781 from 841 on Tuesday while the number of containment zones dropped to 6,169 from 6,476 a day before, it said.