Delhi: Cases up over past 10 days, so is positivity rate

The city's overall positivity rate is 8.7% with the authorities having carried out 1,99,626 tests until May 29, out of which 17,386 were found positive.

Between May 16 and May 26, when the city clocked over 500 Covid cases on an average every day, the positivity rate — that is, for all tests conducted, how many are positive for coronavirus — was over 13%.

Data shared by the Health Department in compliance with a May 4 Delhi High Court order shows that during this period, 42,280 samples were tested, out of which 5,570 were positive – a positivity rate of 13.17 %.

Of the 17,387 coronavirus cases in the capital, more than 39% have been reported over the last 10 days.

The city’s overall positivity rate is 8.7% with the authorities having carried out 1,99,626 tests until May 29, out of which 17,386 were found positive.

The country’s positivity rate stands at 4.75% — 34,83,838 samples were tested of which 1,65,799 are positive.

With the highest number of cases in the country, Maharashtra’s positivity rate is 13.7%, as per consolidated data till May 29. Maharashtra has conducted 4,34,565 tests so far and found 59,546 confirmed cases.

Gujarat, having conducted 1.98 lakh tests, has found 15,572 positive cases till May 28, clocking a positivity rate of 7.8%. However, seen against the state’s total population, the state lags behind Delhi in terms of testing.

The national capital has tested 9,507 people per million population, as per the May 28 bulletin. Delhi is among the states conducting the most number of tests ppm (people per million).

Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, tested 4,55,216 samples till May 28 and recorded 19,372 cases — a positivity rate of 4.2%.

Under the latest guidelines of the Centre, throat or nasal swabs for testing are taken from persons showing symptoms of ILI (influenza-like illnesses) with history of international travel in the last 14 days, or having contact history with laboratory confirmed cases.

Those within containment zones showing ILI symptoms are to be tested regardless of travel or contact history. All ILI symptomatic healthcare workers and frontline workers involved in containment and mitigation of Covid-19 are also eligible for testing. Every Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) patient is also expected to be tested.