Delhi private school student, teacher test Covid-19 positive, classmates sent home

NEW DELHI: In a more worrying development, students of a private school in Delhi were sent back home after a student and teacher tested positive for Covid-19. As a precautionary measure, the school management sent all students on leave in order to contain the virus from infecting others and spreading further.

The incident was reported days after some school students in adjoining Noida and Ghaziabad reportedly contracted the Covid-19 virus, sending the school and health authorities into a tizzy.

It may be noted that Delhi on Wednesday recorded 299 new Covid cases, a jump of 118 per cent from the daily count recorded two days ago, while the positivity rate stood at 2.49 per cent, according to data shared by the health department.

The Covid positivity rate in Delhi has jumped from 0.5 per cent to 2.70 per cent in a week, even as doctors claimed it was "not a panic situation" as the daily cases count was still low but cautioned against dropping the guard.

The daily spike of 299 new cases on Wednesday was a marked rise from 137 cases reported on Monday, according to the health department data. No fatality due to the disease was recorded on Wednesday.

The health department did not issue a bulletin on Tuesday. On Monday, the positivity rate was 2.70 per cent -- the highest in two months. The positivity rate was at 2.87 per cent on February 5.

With an uptick in daily cases and a significant rise in the positivity rate over the last few days, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had on Monday said the city government was keeping a watchful eye on the COVID-19 situation and there was no reason to worry until a new variant of concern is detected.

The national capital's COVID-19 tally on Wednesday stood at 18,66,881 and the death toll at 26,158, the latest bulletin stated. The capital had on Sunday reported 141 cases and one death, while the positivity rate stood at 1.29 per cent.

It saw 160 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 1.55 per cent on Saturday. On Friday, the city had reported 146 cases with a positivity rate of 1.39 per cent and one death.

The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi had touched the record high of 28,867 on January 13 this year during the third wave of the pandemic.

The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the third wave of the pandemic which was largely driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.

As many as 504 COVID-19 patients are in home isolation in the capital, the bulletin stated. There are 9,745 beds for COVID-19 patients in Delhi hospitals and 43 (0.44 per cent) of them are occupied, it said.

Reports of fresh Covid-19 infections among students and teaching staff have sparked concerns weeks after schools opened for offline classes after a two-year gap due to the pandemic.