In the midst of a surge in the number of cases of Covid-19 in Delhi, Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Monday said that the level of participation in the city had reached 6%. “The government says that the number of cases will peak within a week,” Jain said.
Only in the first two days of January, the National Capital recorded more Covid-19 cases than reported between August and November, according to official data.
Jain said the latest genome sequencing report showed that Omicron was detected in 81% of the samples tested for the coronavirus in the city and a new variant that was a concern was the reason behind the surge in the number of Coronavirus cases in Delhi.
Of the latest 187 covid-19 samples tested, 152 (81%) had Omicron and 8.5% had Delta, Jain told the Delhi assembly.
“So Omicron is a variant that spreads now and part of other variants is very low,” he said, responding to questions from the opposition leader Ramvir Bidhuri.
Previously today, when speaking to reporters, Jain said that Omicron contributed 84% of the latest covid samples tested in Delhi.
He also told the Assembly that no patient infected with omikron who claimed to be to the city hospital so far need oxygen.
“Until Sunday, there were around 8,000 active cases in Delhi and only 3.4% of a total of 9,024 covid beds in hospitals was occupied. There were around 1,500 to 2,000 patients in hospitals when Delhi reported the same number of active cases the last time.” Jain said.
He added that more restrictions will be charged if the occupancy rate of the bed rises.
The minister said Omicron came to India around December 1 through infected international passengers.
“We did a RT-PCR test on all international passengers at the airport. Those who tested positively sent to the institution’s quarantine at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital and several private hospitals,” he said.
“Some of the passengers tested negatively at the airport were positive at home after a few days. The whole family and their contact turned out to be a positive covid. So it’s clear that Omicron spreads when these people go home after testing negatives at the airport,” Jain added.
He said the Delhi government repeatedly asked the center to stop all international flights to prevent the distribution of omicrons in the country, but the latter did not do it.
“Everyone knows Omicron does not come from India. It comes from foreign countries. I repeatedly asked the center, the main minister (Arvind KeR) wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop all international flights. But they did not do it, but they did not. They didn’t do it, but they didn’t do it, “he said.
Jain said that even though there was a surge in the number of Covid cases, the situation was controlled because not many people developed severe symptoms or require hospitalization.
According to the health bulletin which will be released later that day, the capital has recorded around 4,000 new Koronavirus cases and the level of participants have increased by 6.5 percent, he said.
The Minister stressed that home isolation policies were very effective in omicron cases because most patients did not have symptoms. Some of them have developed low-quality and cold fever but there are no severe cases because Omicron.