Arvind Kejriwal warned people against being complacent about COVID-19.
Delhi appears to have cleared the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Saturday, as the city reported 1,133 new cases, far below a peak of over 8,000 last month, and a positivity rate of less than 1.5 per cent.
"It appears that the third wave of COVID-19 in Delhi is now ending. Around 90,000 daily tests are being conducted in Delhi today. This is the highest number of daily tests in the country," he told an online briefing.
"There was a time in November when the daily cases went up to nearly 8,600. But, even then it wasn't a panicky situation in Delhi, and beds were available. We fought it all together. The fresh cases count today is 1,133, the official report will soon be out," Mr Kejriwal said.
The highest single-day spike - 8,593 cases - was reported on November 11 in Delhi. India crossed 1 crore infections of the coronavirus on Saturday, much later than predicted only a month ago as the pace of infections slows, despite many giving up on masks and social distancing.
The chief minister said the situation in Delhi has improved significantly as the positivity rate had gone up to 15.26 per cent in early November. It is now down to 1.3 per cent, one of the lowest so far in Delhi, and nationally too, he said.
The active cases, which were around 45,000 in November, are now down to about 12,000, he added.
"The daily average test count falls in the region of 90,000 in Delhi. Someone had advised us to show improvement in testing figures through fraudulent procedures... I issued strict orders, I can say that all our tests figures are genuine," he said.
The chief minister said, "I salute COVID-19 warriors, frontline worker; I thank centre, political parties and religious institutions for their support and cooperation".
He also said people can't afford to be complacent about COVID-19, and advised them to "still be vigilant, observe safety norms like wearing masks and observing social distancing".
After hitting a peak of nearly 98,000 daily cases in mid-September, daily infections have averaged around 30,000 this month in India, helping the country widen its gap with the United States, the world's worst affected country with more than 1.6 crore cases.
(With inputs from agencies)