Delhi’s Covid cases, oxygen demand fall

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Thursday said it has scaled down its requirement of medical oxygen from 700 metric tonne (MT) to 582 MT in view of the receding Covid-19 trajectory in the city, with cases and positivity rates seeing a steady drop over the past two weeks.

The positivity rate – the proportion of samples tested that return positive for Covid-19 – continued to its sharp decline and touched 14.24% on Thursday, the lowest in a single day in a month, or since April 13. A total of 10,489 new cases were reported on Thursday, the lowest daily tally since April 10.

Meanwhile, India continued to record more than 4,000 Covid-19 deaths for a second straight day on Thursday as infections stayed below 400,000.

According to the Union health ministry, India saw 362,727 new Covid-19 infections in the 24 hours to Thursday while deaths climbed by 4,120.

A plateauing in daily new Covid-19 cases and a slight decline in positivity rate have been recorded in the country over the past three days, the government said on Thursday,