With 1,061 new cases reported in the past 24 hours the total number of COVID-19 cases here stood at 1,62,527, according to a health bulletin released by the Delhi government on Monday.
The number of COVID-19 positive people under home isolation in Delhi crossed 6,000 for the first time in August. Of the total number of cases, 1,46,588 people have recovered and there are 11,626 active cases in Delhi at present. Also, 13 more deaths were reported, taking the total number of deaths due to the virus to 4,313 .
The number of new cases has been less than 1,500 for the past 39 days.
The number of tests conducted in the past 24 hours were only about 60% of the average daily tests done in July. The positivity rate, which is the percentage of people who test positive, has increased to a 45-day high of 8.9%, as per the bulletin. This is the highest since July 10, when the positivity rate was 9.09%. The positivity rate, which was 12.2% on July 1 had stayed below it since then and even dropped to 5.2% on August 17. Though Delhi has a capacity to conduct around 11,000 RT-PCR tests a day, only 3,826 such tests were done in the past 24 hours.
Of the total 11,910 tests done in the past 24 hours, 67.8% were rapid antigen tests, which have shown a low positivitycompared to RT-PCR tests.
The number of containment zones in the city was 627 as on Monday.
The Delhi government on Monday said that, after Delhi, the USA has adopted “convalescent plasma therapy” for treating critically ill COVID-19 patients. Congratulating the people of Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “They used to say, back in the day - what America does today, India would do tomorrow. Delhi has changed it. Now - what Delhi did yesterday, America does today. Congratulations Delhiites for achieving this for our country.[sic.]”
“Back in April 2020, Delhi government was the first in the country to apply for permission from Centre to carry out trials of plasma therapy at Lok Nayak Hospital,” an official statement said.
