Delhi on Thursday reported 12,306 fresh COVID-19 cases and 43 more fatalities due to the viral disease, while the positivity rate dipped to 21.48 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
This is the highest number of deaths reported in a day since June 10, 2021, when 44 fatalities were recorded.
As many as 396 people have succumbed to COVID-19 in the national capital so far in January.
According to officials, a total of 57,290 COVID-19 tests were conducted on Wednesday, as against 57,776 a day ago, the data showed.
Delhi had logged 35 deaths and 13,785 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 23.86 per cent.
The city had recorded 28,867 COVID-19 cases last Thursday, the sharpest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. The number then declined to 24,383 on Friday, 20,718 on Saturday, 18,286 on Sunday, 12,527 on Monday, and 11,684 on Tuesday.
The positivity rate stood at 30.6 per cent on Saturday, the highest in the ongoing wave of the pandemic so far, 27.9 per cent on Sunday, 28 per cent on Monday and 22.5 per cent on Tuesday.
There are 15,589 beds for Covid patients in Delhi hospitals and 2,698 (17.31 per cent) of them are occupied. A total of 2,539 Covid patients are in hospitals and 152 of them are on ventilator support, the health department bulletin stated.
Of the 68,730 active Covid cases in Delhi, 53,593 are recovering in home isolation, it said.
Earlier in the day, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said it seems that Delhi has passed the peak of the third wave of COVID-19 but cautioned that the city is not out of the danger zone yet.
The minister said Delhi recently saw a record surge of over 28,000 daily cases and the positivity rate too had gone beyond 30 per cent.
“That spike which Delhi saw can be considered the peak of the Covid wave and it seems that we are past the peak now… The number of daily cases has come down in the last few days. Over 13,000 cases were recorded yesterday with a positivity rate close to 24 per cent. And today, the number of cases is lesser than that,” he said.
On Wednesday, Jain had said the positivity rate in the national capital is not low enough to lift the restrictions imposed to contain the spread of viral disease and that the government will monitor the situation for three to four days.
Since last week, the minister has been saying that hospital admissions have stabilised in the national capital and the third wave has plateaued.
Jain has also said that no one is being denied a Covid test and authorities are following the guidelines issued by the Centre.
“They (Centre) said high-risk contacts of Covid patients and those with symptoms should be tested. On Tuesday, they clarified that tests be conducted in some pockets in the community too, which we are doing,” he said.
Delhi had been conducting 50,000 to 60,000 coronavirus tests daily for the last six months, he added.
The Delhi government on Thursday capped the rate of conventional RT-PCR tests in private hospitals and laboratories at Rs 300, reducing the price by 40 per cent, according to an order.
Earlier, the test used to cost Rs 500.
Rapid antigen tests at private facilities will cost Rs 100, the order stated.
Earlier, it used to cost Rs 300.
