On Wednesday, Delhi conducted a record number of daily tests for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and consequently reported its highest cases in a single day, as the infection count in the city surpassed 200,000, which which makes it the only city in India that breaches this mark.
The capital, the first city with a Covid-19 hotspot in the country that controls the spread of the virus but has seen an increase in the number of cases in the past two weeks, reported 4,039 new cases on Wednesday, taking the total number. infections to 201,174.
The Delhi government conducted a record 54,517 tests for Covid-19 on Wednesday. This was the sixth time in seven days that the city set a new daily testing record, a statistic that highlights the magnitude of the increase in testing.
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With 11,101 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, considered the most accurate method for diagnosing Covid-19, Delhi also set a record for the most single-day RT-PCR tests. The previous record was set a day ago, when Delhi conducted 9,944 such tests.
The resurgence of cases in Delhi had prompted Delhi Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal on August 26 to announce the increase in testing to 40,000 samples per day to track and isolate as many cases as possible.
As of Wednesday, the capital has reported nearly 40,430 more infections than Mumbai, which has the second highest number of infections and 56,579 more cases than Chennai in third place. In total, Mumbai has reported 160,744 cases and Chennai has 144,595 infections as of Wednesday night. All figures are in accordance with the health bulletins issued by their respective state authorities. At the same time, however, Delhi has assessed 100,198 per million of its population compared to 40,032 in Maharashta and 73,252 in Tamil Nadu (updated individual figures for Mumbai and Chennai are not available).
These three metropolitan cities, which were the initial hot spots for the virus in the country, remain the ones with the highest concentration of infections (and deaths).
Without a doubt, the Pune district has more cases (212,563) than these three cities. However, only 119,291 of them are from the city of Pune and the rest are from surrounding areas such as Pimpri-Chinchwad that lie outside the city limits.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet on Tuesday: “Today, Delhi reported the highest number of cases – 4,039. But it also ran the largest number of tests: 54,517 against 15,000-20,000 tests as of last week. If we were running the same number of tests (as last week), today’s cases would be less than 1,500. So don’t be scared by the number of cases. “
In the wake of increased testing, the positivity rate in the city has started to drop again. Of the tests carried out on Wednesday, 7.4% were positive. The average positivity rate, which had fallen from a peak of 31.4% in mid-June to 5.7% at the end of July, had risen again and was at 9% on September 1. In the last week, it fell to 8.2%. Overall, 10.6% of all tests conducted in Delhi were positive.
Experts said the drop in the positivity rate is a good indicator for the city despite the increase in cases.
“A good indicator to see if a government is trying enough is to look at the positivity rate in the city. If the positivity rate is increasing, that means there is greater transmission of the virus in the community. In the case of Delhi, this has recently decreased, which is a good sign. I will be happy if this falls below 5% over a two week period, which is what the World Health Organization said is the threshold for showing that virus transmission is under control, ”said Dr. Lalit Kant , former head of the Department of Epidemiology at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
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