NEW DELHI: Delhi recorded eight deaths and 109 fresh cases of coronavirus infection on Thursday as the city's positivity rate dipped to 0.14 per cent, according to data shared by the Health department here.
The new fatalities have pushed the death toll due to the disease in the city to 24,948.
On Wednesday, Delhi recorded 111 COVID-19 cases and seven fatalities, while the positivity rate stood at 0.15 per cent.
On June 14, the city had registered 131 cases and 16 deaths, while on February 22, there were 128 cases of COVID-19, according to official figures.
On Monday, Delhi had reported 89 coronavirus cases with a positivity rate of 0.16 per cent, both lowest this year so far, while 11 people died, according to the data.
The city's infection rate, which had reached to 36 per cent in the last week of April, has dipped below 0.20 per cent now.
Despite the recent fall in daily cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has cautioned that chances of a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic are quite real, asserting that his government is preparing on a "war-footing" to combat it.
Delhi had been reeling under a brutal second wave of the pandemic.
On April 20, the city reported over 28,000 COVID-19 cases and 277 deaths.
The daily fatality count shot up to 306 on April 22.
Then on May 3, the city registered a record 448 deaths, as per the official data.
However, the number of new cases has shown a downward trend off late, and the positivity rate too has been shrinking over the last few days.
The number of deaths per day has also dipped recently.
The Delhi government had earlier 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 the phased unlock in the national capital, doctors have cautioned that Delhi could face a "worse than second wave situation" of COVID-19 if people do not adhere to safety norms.
A total of 77,382 COVID-19 tests, 54,581 RT-PCR and 22,801 rapid antigen tests, were conducted on Wednesday, according to the latest health bulletin.
The number of cumulative cases on Thursday stood at 14,33,475.
Over 14 lakh patients have recovered from the virus in the city.
The number of active cases decreased to 1,767 on Thursday from 1,797 a day before, as per the bulletin.
The number of people under home-isolation has marginally increased to 523 from 522 on Wednesday, while the number of containment zones has drastically dropped to 2,277 from 4,340 a day before, it showed.
Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Atishi on Thursday said 25 per cent of the national capital's youth population has received at least one dose of Covid vaccine.
On Wednesday, 1,09,358 doses were administered and out of these, nearly 90,000 doses were given to those in the 18-44 years age group, she said while issuing the vaccination bulletin.
The total vaccine doses administered so far is 67,98,236 and more than 16 lakh people have received both doses.
The Delhi government is hopeful of vaccinating the entire youth population "soon", if regular supply of vaccine is ensured, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator said.
Now, walk-in facility is available for all age groups at all government school vaccination centres, which are listed on the CoWin application, she said.
"Due to the clubbing of vaccine stocks for both age groups (18-44 group and 45 years and above group), there has been an increase in vaccine stock available for the youth and hence, the vaccination speed is increasing in Delhi," Atishi said.
With the increase in vaccination of the youth, due to the availability of vaccine stocks, "25 per cent youth population in Delhi has been vaccinated", she said, adding that "it means that this population has at least received the first jab of the vaccine".
Delhi received more than 68,000 Covaxin doses and 80,000 Covishield doses on Wednesday.
The national capital has 10,24,000 vaccine doses available, the AAP leader said.
"Currently, Delhi has 20 days of Covaxin and nine days of Covishield stock available, and Covaxin is only being administered to the recipients of second dose," Atishi said.
Out of the total doses administered on Wednesday, 98,287 were first dose, while 11,071 were second doses.
"This takes the total vaccine doses administered in Delhi to 67, 98,236, and more than 16 lakh people receiving both the doses of the vaccine," Atishi said.
"The Delhi government is hopeful that if it gets vaccine supply regularly then, it would be able to vaccinate the entire Delhi youth population soon," she said.
Atishi also appealed to those who haven't yet been vaccinated to come forward and get themselves inoculated as soon as possible.
"All the vaccine centres are now eligible to administer vaccine to people of all the age groups. One can either book their slot on the CoWin application or use the walk-in facility available at any of the Government school centres as listed on the CoWin app," she said.