Delhi reports 1,652 new Covid-19 cases, 8 deaths in last 24 hours

Delhi on Wednesday recorded eight more Covid-related fatalities and 1,652 new cases even as the positivity rate came down below 10% after more than a fortnight, according to data shared by the city health department. Meanwhile, the positivity rate in the national capital dropped to 9.92% on Wednesday.

This comes a day after the national capital on Tuesday reported 917 Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 19.20% and three deaths due to the infection and with this, Delhi's caseload went up to 19,88,391 and the death toll to 26,400, it said.

The fresh cases came out of 16,658 tests, the health department's latest bulletin said. Interestingly, on Monday, the capital had reported 1,227 Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 14.57%, while eight more people died due to the disease. Before this, the national capital logged more than 2,000 cases daily for 12 consecutive days.

In the meantime, India on Wednesday recorded 9,062 fresh Covid-19 infections that took its tally to 4,42,86,256, while the number of active cases came down to 1,05,058, according to Union health ministry data.

The death toll climbed to 5,27,134 with 36 new fatalities, including six reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 0.24 per cent of the total infections. The national Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 98.57 per cent, the ministry said.

A decline of 6,194 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.49 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 4.38 per cent, the ministry said. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,36,54,064, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent, it said.

So far, 208.57 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the country under the nationwide vaccination drive, it added. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the 1-crore mark on December 19.

(With inputs from PTI)