Delhi on Thursday reported 1,313 fresh Covid cases, the highest single-day spike since May 26, as the positivity rate soared to 1.73 per cent, health minister Satyendar Jain has warned against the spread of the new coronavirus. Omicron is slowly spreading in the community.
The daily case count crossed the 1,000 mark after a gap of seven months. On May 28, the city had registered 1,141 cases.
As per the data of the officials, 923 cases were registered on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 1.29 per cent. The positivity rate had crossed the one percent mark after a gap of seven months.
According to the latest health bulletin, the number of daily cases rose to 1,313 on Thursday with a positivity rate of 1.73 per cent. No fresh deaths have been recorded.
The increase is the highest since May 26 when 1,491 cases were reported with a positivity rate of 1.93 per cent, while 130 deaths were also recorded that day.
A huge increase in fresh cases in the last few days comes amid a significant jump in cases of the new Omron version of Covid in Delhi.
In an online press briefing, Jain said that Omicron is slowly spreading in the community and the new, fast-spreading variant of the concern has been found in 46 per cent of the latest samples analyzed in the national capital.
“These people include people who have no travel history. This means that Omicron is now inside Delhi,” he said.
“Indeed, the variant is slowly spreading in the community and its proportion will increase in the coming days,” the minister said on whether Omicron would be the dominant variant in a possible third wave of the pandemic.
According to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday, India recorded the highest single-day increase of Omicron infections with 180 fresh cases, taking the total number of such infections in the country to 961.
Delhi reported the maximum number of 263 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 252, Gujarat 97, Rajasthan 69, Kerala 65 and Telangana 62.
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According to official figures, the number of deaths in the national capital so far in the month of December is nine, which is the highest in the last four months.
The total number of people who died of coronavirus infection in Delhi is 25,107.
According to official figures, on Tuesday and Monday, the number of daily cases stood at 496 and 331, respectively.
Jain said countries such as the US and France have recorded their highest number of daily COVID cases amid Omicron’s spread “but the good news is that it does not cause serious infections and very few patients require hospitalisation.” Is”.
He said stringent restrictions have been imposed as part of the Graded Response Action Plan for COVID-19 to contain the spread of the infection and the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will decide on imposing more restrictions, They said.
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The Delhi government has said that it is preparing on a “war footing” to handle the situation to face the threat of a third wave of the pandemic. The second wave has wreaked havoc in the capital and across the country.
According to an official order on Thursday, the Delhi government has set up a total of 350 isolation beds at four locations, including the Commonwealth Games Village, for international travelers, their contacts and Omicron cases.
Active cases in Delhi on Thursday rose to 3,081 from 2,191 on Wednesday.
Amid the spurt in cases in Delhi, doctors recently cautioned that people should avoid all gatherings and follow COVID-appropriate behaviour, otherwise given the highly contagious nature of this type of coronavirus pandemic. The situation may worsen.
According to Thursday’s bulletin, out of 8,835 dedicated COVID beds in Delhi, 189 were occupied, including suspected cases, with 8,646 lying vacant.
In addition, 28 COVID positive passengers brought from the airport have been admitted to hospitals, a total of 66 coronavirus patients were on oxygen support, while one critical COVID patient was on ventilator.
The cumulative number of cases on Monday stood at 14,46,415. As per the latest bulletin, over 14.18 lakh patients have recovered from the infection.
According to official figures, seven COVID-19 deaths were reported here in November this year. Delhi had recorded four deaths in October and five in September.
Thursday’s bulletin said a total of 75,953 tests – 68,590 RT-PCR tests and 7,363 rapid antigen tests – were conducted the day before.
The number of people under home isolation stood at 1,560 on Thursday, compared to 1,068 a day earlier, and the number of containment zones in the city was 645, a significant jump from 502 on Wednesday, the bulletin said.
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