Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the Covid-19 is nearing the endemic phase in the national capital as the city witnesses marginal spike in Covid-19 cases. Delhi recorded 286 new Covid-19 cases and two deaths on Sunday, while the positivity rate stood at 0.31 per cent amid a sudden surge in incidences, as per data shared by the health department.

“We believe that the pandemic phase is ending, and we are now entering the endemic phase,” NDTV quoted Satyendar Jain as saying.

A pandemic is the spread of a disease beyond countries or across the world while an endemic is the persistence of an infectious disease in a given region affecting a large part of the population. The disease remains at a steady state, but do not disappear from a population.

Delhi registered 321 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily count in nearly one-and-a-half months, and a death on Saturday, and 312 cases and a fatality on Friday.

“It’s like the case of H1N1 or Swine Flu, which came to Delhi around eight to ten years ago. So, it’s an endemic as every year a few cases crop up. Similary, we don’t think the disease (COVID-19) would be completely wiped out, a few cases will remain,” the health minister reportedly added.

His remark comes on Sunday as the Union Health Ministry listed Delhi among eight states that are displaying an upward trajectory in daily cases.

The numbers in Delhi had started to come down the next month and on February 26, 256 new cases were recorded, the highest daily count in February, as per official figures. The number of active cases stood at 1,803 on Sunday, the bulletin said.

“The positivity rate in Delhi has been below one percent for the last two months. After over 90,000 Covid tests done in a day, the positive rate was recorded at 0.3 per cent. These fluctuations between 0.5 and 0.3 percent isn’t very concerning. The bed occupancy in hospitals is less than 10 per cent,” he added.

The number of people under home isolation on Sunday rose to 937 from 879 on Saturday, the bulletin said, adding that over 6.28 lakh people have recovered till date.