Delhi reported 4,099 cases today, 28 per cent more than yesterday. The national capital has reported more than 10,000 in the last three days. Delhi's Health Minister Satyender Jain said today that as many as 84% cases in the capital are of Omicron - the latest, more transmissible variant of Covid-19.


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Of the latest 187 Covid samples tested, 152 (81 per cent) had Omicron and 8.5 per cent had Delta, Jain told the Delhi Assembly. "So Omicron is the variant spreading now and the share of other variants is very low," he said, responding to a question from Leader of Opposition Ramvir Bidhuri.


Earlier in the day, Jain told reporters that Omicron accounted for 84 per cent of the latest Covid samples tested in Delhi. He also told the Assembly that none of the Omicron-infected patients admitted to the city hospitals had required oxygen so far.


"Till Sunday, there were around 8,000 active cases in Delhi and just 3.4 per cent of the total 9,024 Covid beds in the hospitals were occupied. There were around 1,500 to 2,000 patients in the hospitals when Delhi reported an equal number of active cases the last time," Jain said.


He added that more restrictions will be imposed if the bed occupancy rate goes up.


The minister said Omicron came to India around December 1 through infected international passengers.


"We conduct RT-PCR tests on all international passengers at the airport. Those who test positive are sent to institutional quarantine at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital and some private hospitals," he said.


"Some of the passengers who tested negative at the airport turned out positive at home after some days. Their entire families and contacts turned out Covid positive. So it is clear that Omicron spread when these people went home after testing negative at the airport," Jain added.
He said the Delhi government has repeatedly requested the Centre to stop all international flights to prevent the spread of Omicron in the country, but the latter did not do so.


"Everyone knew Omicron did not originate in India. It came from foreign countries. I repeatedly requested the Centre, the chief minister (Arvind Kejriwal) wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop all international flights. But they did not do so," he said.


Jain said though there is a spike in the number of Covid cases, the situation is under control as not many people are developing severe symptoms or require hospitalisation.


According to the health bulletin to be issued later in the day, the capital has recorded around 4,000 new coronavirus cases and the positivity rate has gone up to 6.5 per cent, he said.


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