NEW DELHI: The national capital recorded 311 COVID-19 deaths in a day, and 20,960 cases with a positivity rate of 26.37 per cent, according to the health bulletin issued by the Delhi health department on Wednesday afternoon.
This is the fourth day on the trot that the positivity rate has remained below 30 per cent.
The city government said in a statement that all-round efforts and aggressive COVID management have resulted in a dramatic decrease in the city's COVID positivity rate.
"Within just 10 days, Delhi's COVID positivity rate has reduced by 9 per cent. On April 26, Delhi reported a positivity rate of 35 per cent and on May 5, it came down to around 26 per cent," it said.
According to government data, the capital registered a positivity rate of 26.73 on Tuesday, 29.56 per cent on Monday, 28.33 per cent on Sunday, 31.6 per cent on Saturday, 32.7 per cent on Friday, 32.8 per cent on Thursday, 31.8 per cent on Wednesday, 32.7 per cent on last Tuesday, and 35 percent on last Monday.
On April 22, a positivity rate of 36.2 percent, the highest so far, was recorded.
Delhi had reported 19,953 cases on Tuesday, 18,043 cases on Monday, the lowest since April 15; 20,394 cases on Sunday, 25,219 on Saturday, 27,047 on Friday, 24,235 on Thursday, 25,986 on Wednesday, 24,149 on last Tuesday, 20,201 on last Monday and 22,933 on last Sunday.
The city had witnessed 338 deaths on Tuesday, 448 on Monday, the highest so far; 407 on Sunday, 412 on Saturday, 375 on Friday, 395 on Thursday, 368 on Wednesday; 381 on last Tuesday, 380 on Monday, 350 on last Sunday, and 357 on Saturday last week.
The city has so far recorded 12,53,902 cases, of which over 11.43 lakh have recovered.
The death toll due to the viral disease stands at 18,063, the bulletin said.
The number of active cases stands at 91,859.
Out of the 21,528 COVID beds in various hospitals of the city, only 1,518 are vacant.
The two medical oxygen plants have been installed at AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in the national capital with PM-CARES fund and will start supplying oxygen to these medical facilities by this evening, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
The plants were airlifted from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and installed here on Tuesday on a war footing, it said.
The ministry said in order to cope with high demand of medical oxygen amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, fund has been allocated from PM-CARES for installation of over 500 medical oxygen plants across the country.
These plants are planned to be set up within three months.
In all, five high flow medical oxygen plants are planned to be installed at AIIMS Trauma Centre, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML), Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, and AIIMS, Jhajjar, in Haryana.
The city government's Delhi Corona app on Wednesday showed the National Heart Institute in East of Kailash has medical oxygen reserves for close to 1,000 days.
The column against the private healthcare facility showed it had oxygen stock left for "999 days and 23 hours" at 10:23 am.
However, when inquired, an official of the hospital said they had 952 cubic meters of oxygen left at 2:45 pm.
"The stock can last up to midnight. A refill is scheduled around 11 pm," he said.
The 'Delhi Corona' app, which provides information on beds and ventilators at hospitals in the city, on Wednesday started showing the oxygen availability status of these facilities.
Delhi hospitals have been struggling with a shortage in the supply of the life-saving gas amid a spurt in coronavirus cases.