A man being tested for Covid-19 amid Omicron threat at Ghazipur sabzi mandi in New Delhi, Wednesday. (Express photo by Amit Mehra) Delhi added 25 cases to its tally of the new heavily-mutated omicron variant on Thursday, staying ahead of Maharashtra for the second day in a row. The capital has recorded 263 cases of omicron variant since it was first detected in the country in early December, which is the highest in the country.
India has recorded 961 cases of the variant so far.
The increasing number of Omicron cases could be the reason behind the sudden surge in Covid-19 cases in the city. The Indian Express reported that with state surveillance teams not finding any history of international travel or contact with an international traveller for nearly 60 cases, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority has accepted the possibility of a new variant already circulating in the community.
Delhi saw its daily tally almost doubling from a day ago with 923 new cases reported on Wednesday. And despite an increase in the number of tests conducted, the positivity rate – the proportion of the total samples that return positive – shot up to 1.29% on Wednesday, according to the daily health bulletin. In comparison, the positivity rate had almost constantly remained below 0.1% for six months now.
The yellow alert under the Covid Graded Response Action Plan has been implemented. A night curfew between 10 pm and 5 am is in place, shops are opening in the odd-even mode in markets and malls, and movement in public transport is restricted too.
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