Fourth wave scare: Delta out, Omicron now dominant Covid variant in Delhi, details here

New Delhi: The Delta variant, which triggered the deadly second wave of Covid-19 in India, is now rapidly disappearing in Delhi making Omicron the dominant variant of coronavirus in the national capital, the Delhi health department said during the DDMA meeting on  Wednesday.

The Omicron, which is believed to be a comparatively less fatal variant only affecting the upper respiratory system, has been found in most samples during genome sequencing in Delhi.

The capital city has now started genome sequencing of samples of all Covid infected people in the capital to ascertain if a new variant, such as the XE variant, has spread in  Delhi.

DDMA order on genome sequencing

As per media reports, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority directed the health department to send all the positive RT-PCR samples, detected from April 9-12 for genome sequencing.

The step is being taken to ensure if there’s a spread of the new XE Omicron variant in

Omicron in 97% of samples from deceased patients from Jan to March

Ninety-seven per cent of the samples taken from those who died of Covid in Delhi from January to March had the Omicron variant of coronavirus, according to government data.

Genome sequencing of 578 samples collected from the deceased showed that 560 of them had the Omicron variant.

The remaining 18 (three per cent) had other variants of COVID-19, including Delta, which fuelled the ferocious second wave of infections in April and May last year, and sublineages.

Rising Coivd cases in Delhi

Delhi is once again seeing a spurt in the number of infections, with experts attributing it to a large number of people not following Covid-appropriate behaviour, including the mask mandate.

In view of the spike in cases, the Delhi government on Wednesday made the wearing of masks mandatory in public places and imposed a fine of Rs 500 on violators.

Officials said the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, in its meeting, also decided not to shut schools but chose to come up with a separate Standard Operating Procedure in consultation with experts.