NEW DELHI: The daily Covid-19 tally has been hovering around 1,000 in the last few days in the city even as the city recorded 1,083 fresh cases on Sunday. As many as 1,094 cases were recorded on Saturday while the figure was 1,042 on Friday, 965 on Thursday and 1,009 cases on Wednesday.
The positivity rate has also been hovering around 4.5 per cent. While on Sunday the figure was 4.48%, the figures were 4.82% and 4.6% respectively on Friday and Thursday. Testing has also been stagnant — around 20,000 — for the last four days. A total of 24,177 tests were conducted on the previous days as per Sunday’s health bulletin. While the city is recording fresh cases every day, doctors say it is too early to say that there is a surge.
“The curbs were relaxed and because of which the numbers were rising. Now, with the restrictions on wearing mask back again, we will have to wait how the numbers are moving,” said a doctor working with Lok Nayak Hospital. Delhi’s R-value, which indicates the spread of Covid-19, was recorded at 2.1 this week, implying that every infected person is spreading the disease to two others, according to an analysis by IIT-Madras.
The ‘R’ or reproductive value indicates the number of people an infected person can spread the disease to, and a pandemic is considered to end if this value goes below one. When asked if it can be deduced that this is the beginning of the fourth wave of Covid-19 in Delhi, Dr Jayant Jha, assistant professor, Department of Mathematics, IIT-Madras, said it would be too early to declare an onset of another wave.The infection tally in the national capital now stands at 18,74,876. The hospitalisation rate has accounted for less than three per cent of the total active cases, according to data.