Delhi reports 109 new COVID-19 cases, 8 deaths; positivity rate 0.14 pc

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. PTI KND IJT IJT

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