COVID-19 third wave has hit Delhi, positivity rate has touched 10 per cent: Health Minister Satyendar Jain

Delhi`s Health Minister also said that only 300-400 samples are being sent for genome sequencing now as sequencing of all samples is not possible. Testing for COVID-19 has been increased and around 90,000 tests have been conducted on Tuesday, he said.

New Delhi: The third wave of COVID-19 pandemic has hit Delhi and the national capital is expected to record over 10,000 new cases on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 10 per cent,  Health Minister Satyendar Jain said.

The Health Minister also said that only 300-400 samples are being sent for genome sequencing now as sequencing of all samples is not possible. Testing for COVID-19 has been increased and around 90,000 tests have been conducted on Tuesday, he said.

The AAP government has activated a COVID war room which will maintain district and hospital-wise data about bed occupancy, patients, oxygen etc, Jain added. The Delhi government has also instructed private hospitals to increase the number of reserved beds for COVID patients to 40% from 10% of their capacity. Nearly 2% of beds are occupied in the government hospitals, the Health Minister said.

The Delhi government on Tuesday announced a weekend curfew and work from home for its offices as the city recorded 5,481 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest number since May 16, with a positivity rate of 8.37 per cent and three fatalities.

During the weekend curfew that will come into force at 10 pm on Friday and will be in place till 5 am on Monday to tackle a surge in COVID-19 driven by Omicron, all essential services will be allowed in the national capital. Along with weekend curfew, night curfew will also continue to be in place during weekdays. 

This comes at a time when 243 new cases of highly transmissible Covid variant Omicron were detected in the last 24 hours, taking India`s Omicron tally to 2,135 cases. Of these, 828 people have recovered from the new strain so far.

Maharashtra and Delhi continue to be the worst-hit states with this new variant. Among the states and union territories (UTs) that have reported the Omicron infection so far, Maharashtra tops the list with 653 cases of this variant. Of them, 259 patients have been discharged as per the health ministry data on Wednesday. The state alone has reported 85 new Omicron cases in the last 24 hours.

With 82 cases of Omicron variant detected in the last 24 hrs, Delhi`s tally has reached 464. The national capital has the second-highest cases of Omicron infection.