Covid-19 in Delhi: 444 fresh cases, 10 deaths; positivity rate 0.59 pc

Delhi recorded 444 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday, the seventh time the daily infection count stood below the 500-mark in January, while thepositivity rate dipped to 0.59 per cent, officials said.

The infection tally in the city stood at 6.29 lakh and the death toll mounted to 10,654, they said.

The active cases tally on Friday dropped to 3,779 from 4,168 on Thursday.

The city had recorded 654 cases on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 0.88 per cent, the only time the daily infection count has crossed the 500-mark in the first seven days of January.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had earlier said the positivity rate had been below one per cent for the past several days, indicating improvement in the COVID-19 situation here.

From December 21-23, the daily case count had been below the 1000-mark. On December 21, 803 cases were reported; 939 on December 22 and 871 cases on December 23.

However, on December 24, 1,063 cases were recorded, dropping again to 758 on December 25 and 655 on December 26. On December 27, 757 cases were recorded while on December 28, the daily cases count was 564, the lowest in the last five months.

On December 29 and 30, the city recorded 703 and 677 cases respectively. On December 31, 574 cases were recorded.

This month, 585 cases were reported on January 1, 494 on January 2, 424 cases on January 3, 384 on January 4, 442 cases on January 5 and 486 on Thursday.

These 444 new cases on Friday resulted from the 75,724 tests conducted the previous day, including 38,839 RT-PCR tests and 36,885 rapid antigen tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

The bulletin said the total number of cases has climbed to 6,29,282.

According to the Friday bulletin, out of the total number of 12,380 beds in COVID hospitals, 10,909 are vacant.

The number of tests done per million as on Wednesday was over 4.86 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 92 lakh.

Meanwhile, the second dry run for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out was conducted in Delhi on Friday, officials said.

These districts include, south Delhi, southeast Delhi and northwest Delhi, they said. The first dry run was held on January 2.

Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal announced on Friday that travellers coming to Delhi from the United Kingdom will have to undergo a seven-day institutional quarantine even if they test negative for COVID-19, tightening protocols to "protect Delhiites" from the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2.

After completion of the institutional quarantine, such passengers will have to go under home-quarantine for another seven days which will be ensured through "strict surveillance" by district authorities.