NEW DELHI: Delhi recorded four more COVID-19-related deaths, the lowest since March 21, and 115 new cases on Friday with a positivity rate of 0.15 per cent, according to a health bulletin issued here.
The new fatalities pushed the death toll due to the infection to 24,952, it said.
The case fatality rate stands at 1.74 per cent, it added.
The national capital had recorded four deaths on March 30 and an equal number of fatalities on March 23, while it recorded a single fatality on March 21.
Delhi recorded eight deaths and 109 fresh cases of coronavirus on Thursday as the city's positivity rate dipped to 0.14 per cent.
On Wednesday, Delhi recorded 111 COVID-19 cases and seven fatalities, while the positivity rate stood at 0.15 per cent.
On Monday, Delhi had reported 89 coronavirus cases with a positivity rate of 0.16 per cent, both lowest this year so far, while 11 people died, according to the data.
The city's infection rate, which had reached 36 per cent in the last week of April, has dipped to below 0.20 per cent now.
Despite the recent fall in daily cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has cautioned that chances of a third Covid wave are quite real, asserting that his government is preparing on a "war-footing" to combat it.
Delhi had been reeling under a brutal second wave of the pandemic.
On April 20, the city reported over 28,000 COVID-19 cases and 277 deaths.
The daily fatality count shot up to 306 on April 22.
Then on May 3, the city registered a record 448 deaths, as per the official data.
However, the number of new cases has shown a downward trend off late, and the positivity rate too has been shrinking over the last few days.
The number of deaths per day has also dipped recently.
A total of 77,477 COVID-19 tests 54,739 RT-PCR and 22,738 rapid antigen tests were conducted on Thursday, according to the latest health bulletin on Friday.
The number of cumulative cases on Friday stood at 14,33,590.
As many as 14,06,958 patients have recovered from the virus in Delhi.
The number of active cases decreased to 1,680 on Friday from 1,767 a day before, according to the bulletin.
The number of people under home-isolation declined to 503 from 523 on Thursday, while the number of containment zones further dropped to 2,048 from 2,277 a day before, it showed.
Of the 23,692 beds in hospitals, 1,044 are occupied, it said.
As many as 1,57,093 people were vaccinated in the last 24 hours, including 20,055 who were administered the second dose, thereby making them fully vaccinated.
A total of 69,62,692 people have been vaccinated till now, including 16,48,053, who have received both the doses.
The national capital administered a record 1.56 lakh vaccine doses on Thursday, of which 1,28,909 went to beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Atishi said here.
The total count of doses administered was 1,56,636, the AAP leader said on Friday, announcing the daily vaccination bulletin.
Among the beneficiaries in the 18-44 years category, 2,449 were administered their second dose, while the rest got their first.
"It is because the youth is coming out in great numbers that the 45+ members of their families also get encouraged to get vaccinated. This is the reason why Delhi's vaccination speed has increased so much," Atishi said.
The city has so far administered 69,54,942 vaccine doses, 53,09,546 people have been given the first dose and 16,45,396 have received the second dose.
Out of the completely vaccinated people, 1,50,965 are from the 18-44 age group and 10,32,960 are in the 45+ group.
A total of 4,61,471 fully vaccinated people are from the healthcare and frontline workers category.
According to the bulletin, the national capital has a stock of 8,80,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses, 1,20,000 Covaxin and 7,60,000 Covishield.
"Since we are using Covaxin only for the second dose, its speed of usage is relatively low," Atishi said.
The stock of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin is expected to last another 13 days, while Serum Institute's Covishield will suffice for five days, she said.
The Delhi government is aiming to vaccinate all homeless people living in night shelters in the national capital within a month through special camps, officials said on Friday.
The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) organised the first vaccination camp for homeless people at Yamuna Pushta Night Shelter near Nigam Bodh Ghat in association with the office of the district magistrate (Central Delhi).
A total of 150 homeless people were vaccinated on the first day of the camp.
On Saturday, another such camp will become operational at Dandi Park in north Delhi.
"We have around 209 night shelters operating across the city where around 52,000 people take refuge. We are aiming at vaccinating all such people within a month," S K Mahajan, chief engineer (night shelter), DUSIB, said.
DUSIB will organise more such camps at Jama Masjid, Asaf Ali Road, Dandi Park, Ramlila Maidan, etc. in the coming days, another official said.
On Monday, DUSIB wrote to all district magistrates, requesting them to accomplish the task of vaccinating all homeless people living in its shelter homes expeditiously.
As most homeless people do not have a mobile phone or ID proof, officials have been creating special sessions, allowing registration of such beneficiaries on the CoWIN portal.
Vaccination in Delhi: Special Cowin sessions for homeless people without identity cards
Without an identity proof or a mobile phone, 46-year-old Sunil Thakur waited for four hours to get vaccinated at a special inoculation centre set up for homeless people at Yamuna Pushta Night Shelter here, while people who came from places like Baghpat and Ghaziabad and had IDs got jabs within minutes.
"Confusion marred the pace of the vaccination drive for homeless people. Nobody knew how to register such people without an identity card or mobile number," an officer at the vaccination centre said.
The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board organised the vaccination camp in association with the office of the district magistrate (Central Delhi) the Centre for Holistic Development.
One of the officers present at the camp said he got to know about the drive last night.
"There were no preparations whatsoever. Someone, we got it started around 10:30 am," he said.
In the absence of a mechanism to register homeless people on the Cowin portal, those having an identity proof and a mobile number were vaccinated with Covishield first.
"This drive was meant for homeless people; most of them do not have any identity proof or mobile number. So, they had to wait for hours while people from outside got themselves registered and took the jabs within minutes," a member of an NGO present at the night shelter said.
Most of the first 50 people vaccinated at the centre till 2 pm on Friday belonged to nearby residential areas.
Some had come from outside Delhi.
Ram Lakhan Mahto, 45, came from Ghaziabad to take the jab.
A family of five from Baghpat also got their shot before most of the homeless people waiting at the night shelter since morning.
Amod Kumar and three of his friends from Jamuna Bazaar and Patel Nagar too walked out of the centre after getting inoculated in a few minutes.
A special session, which allowed registration of "as many homeless beneficiaries as needed" was created on the CoWIN portal, Vaccination Officer Aftab Ahmed said.
Around 100 homeless people were linked to an ID created with Aadhaar and mobile number of the night shelter's caretaker, he said.
"We cannot simply enter the names of homeless people in a register and vaccinate them. This crucial data goes to state and central governments. So, we waited till an ID was created," Ahmed said.
A total of 150 people were vaccinated on the first day.
The drive will be expanded to Dandi Park in North Delhi on Saturday, a DUSIB official said.