Delhi records 501 fresh Covid cases, positivity rate jumps to 7.72%, no fatality

New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI) Delhi's COVID-19 positivity rate on Monday jumped to 7.72 per cent even as the city recorded 501 fresh cases, 16 less than the previous day, according to health department data.

Officials said that last time the positivity rate was above seven per cent in the city on January 29 (7.4 per cent) and on January 28 (8.6 per cent).

Barring Sunday, Delhi has been witnessing an upward trend in daily COVID-19 cases positivity rate in the last few days.  Despite less tests the positivity rate in the city on Monday rose to 7.72 per cent. The national capital on Sunday recorded a 4.21 per cent positivity rate.

A total of 6,492 COVID-19 tests were conducted the previous day, the bulletin stated on Monday. However, Sunday's health bulletin had stated that a total of 12,270 COVID-19 tests were conducted the previous day.

According to data provided by city health department, the positivity rate in last one week between April 10 and April 18 have increased by six times.

The positivity rate on April 10 was 1.29 per cent with 141 cases which rose to 7.72 per cent on Monday with 501 fresh COVID-19 cases.

With the new cases, the city's infection tally has risen to 18,69,051 while the death toll stood at 26,160 as no new fatality was reported.

The city had on Sunday recorded 517 Covid cases with no deaths.

On Saturday, 461 Covid cases and two deaths were reported in Delhi while the positivity rate was 5.33 per cent.

On Friday, Delhi had logged 366 COVID-19 cases and zero death, while the positivity rate was 3.95 per cent.

The number of patients under home isolation have also increased as there were 1,188 covid patients under home isolation while on Sunday this number was 964.

There are 9,735 beds for COVID-19 patients in Delhi hospitals and 81 (0.83 per cent) of them are occupied, the bulletin said.

The bulletin added that as on date there were 623 containment zones across the city.  The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi had touched the record high of 28,867 on January 13 this year during the third wave of the pandemic.

The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the third wave of the pandemic which was largely driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.