Delhi recorded an average of 1,207 cases over the last five days when the infections shot past the 1,000-mark.
With fewer tests for Covid-19 conducted in Delhi Sunday, the positivity rate or the proportion of samples tested that returned positive shot up to 11.4 per cent—the highest seen in the Capital since the waning of the Omicron-variant driven wave in January.
In terms of the absolute number of fresh cases of Covid-19, there were only 822 infections reported in Monday’s health bulletin that recorded cases, tests, and deaths from the previous 24 hours. To compare, an average of 1,207 cases were recorded in Delhi over the last five days when the infections shot past the 1,000-mark.
A high positivity rate—indicative of the spread of the infection in the city—is significant given that there have been fewer tests conducted for the infection since home-based kits became readily available after the January wave. The number of people who test positive on home kits might not be recorded in the official tally.
The spread of the infection is thought to be under control when the positivity remains at 5 per cent or less for two weeks.
As seen with the previous Omicron wave, the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases did not lead to the number of hospitalisations shooting up, even though there has been some increase. There were 291 people admitted to city hospitals with Covid-19 infection, according to the health bulletin.
Although this is one of the highest number of hospitalisations seen since the January wave, it is nowhere close to what was seen during the massive second wave in April-May last year in Delhi. When the number of cases had crossed the 1,000 mark in March leading up to the wave, 980 people were admitted to city hospitals