After two days, Delhi’s Covid-19 positivity rate has dropped below the 2% mark again with more tests conducted. The capital reported 424 fresh cases of the infection, with a positivity rate of 1.89% on Wednesday, as per the government’s health bulletin. The positivity rate had dipped below the 2% mark for the first time in 40 days on Sunday. With the positivity rate (proportion of samples tested that return positive) reflecting the spread of the infection in an area, WHO initially said that a positivity rate of 5% or less for a period of two weeks meant Covid-19-related restrictions could be lifted in an area. Although the number of fresh cases has gone down, Delhi on Wednesday reported four deaths due to the infection, the third instance this has happened during the current surge. Four is also the highest single day toll recorded during the current surge in infections. The number of infections, as well as hospitalisations and deaths, remained low during the current surge. The number of cases in Delhi peaked at 1,656, as per the health bulletin. The surge seen in April and May in Delhi and the neighbouring states came after all Covid-19 restrictions, including mask mandates, were done away with. Fines for not masking in public were brought back in Delhi and some districts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana close to the capital in order to contain the numbers. Although BA.2.12.1, a more infectious variant that is currently the dominant one in the United States, has been detected by Delhi labs, BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron that drove the country’s third wave continues to be the dominant one in Delhi. Meaning, the slight surge witnessed currently was in the absence of a new variant circulating.
