Positivity rate of cases in last two weeks jumps from 0.93% to over 3.5%

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New Delhi: Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi, the positivity rate has mounted from just below 1% to 3.57% in the last two weeks, according to official data.

Delhi had recorded 2,790 fresh COVID-19 cases on April 2, the highest daily count this year while nine more people had died due to the infection, taking the death toll to 11,036, according to the city health department.

The positivity rate also had mounted to 3.57% amid a massive surge in cases in the span of the last few weeks. Delhi had reported 1,819 coronavirus cases on March 31 with a positivity rate of 2.71%, while 11 more people succumbed to the pathogen.

The number of cumulative cases on April 1 stood at 6,65,220. Over 6.43 lakh patients have recovered from the virus.

The city had recorded 992 cases on March 30, 1,904 cases on March 29 and 1,881 cases on March 28.

Delhi on March 19 had recorded 716 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest in over two-and-a-half months, while the positivity rose had jumped to 0.93%. Four fatalities were reported on that day pushing the death toll to 10,953, as per official data.

The next day, Delhi had reported over 800 COVID-19 cases, for the first time this year, and the positivity rate had breached the 1%-mark after over two months.

The figures have been steadily rising since then, crossing two per cent-mark in between and then breaching the 3%-mark.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had last week dismissed any possibility of imposing another lockdown in Delhi, saying it was not a solution to check the spread of the coronavirus that is again surging rapidly.

Health experts and doctors have attributed this “sudden rise” in cases to people turning complacent and not following COVID-appropriate behaviour.

The next two-three months could be challenging, they said, adding the situation can be kept under control if vaccination is opened up for more people and COVID-19 protocols are strictly adhered to.