Delhi records 1,363 new Covid-19 cases; positivity rate 1.51%

Delhi recorded 1,363 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday with over 90,000 tests conducted, the highest till date, even as the positivity rate slipped to 1.51 per cent, authorities said.

The death toll mounted to 10,182 with 35 new fatalities, they said. This is the third consecutive day when the positivity rate remained below 2 per cent.

These 1,363 fresh cases, lowest since August 31, came out of the record 90,354 tests conducted the previous day, including 49,102 RT-PCR tests and 41,252 rapid antigen tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department. On August 31, the city had recorded 1,358 cases.

The positivity rate from December 3 to December 7 had successively dipped to 4.96 per cent, 4.78 per cent, 4.2 per cent, 3.68 per cent and 3.15 per cent respectively. However, on December 8 it had risen again to 4.23 per cent, but fell to 3.42 per cent on December 9 and 2.46 per cent on December 10.

It had risen to 3.33 per cent again on December 11 and fell again to 2.64 per cent on December 12, and rose marginally again to 2.74 on December 13 but fell to 2.15 per cent on December 14. On December 15 and 16, the positivity rates were 1.9 per cent and 1.96 per cent respectively.

The active cases tally on Thursday dropped to 12,198 from 13,261 the previous day. The bulletin said that the total number of cases has climbed to 6,13,357.

(Cover: A woman walks past a mural referring to Covid-19 painted on a wall in New Delhi, India /Credit – Getty Images)