Omicron cases in Delhi see sharp rise, tally at 351 as 31 people test positive in 24 hours

According to data shared by the state government, Delhi has the second highest number of Omicron cases in the country after Maharashtra — 454.

Along with the number of omicron cases, which have now entered the stage of community transmission, the total number of coronavirus cases in the city has also shot up from less than 500 to almost 1,800 in three days. This is the highest number of cases the city has seen since May-end, when the second wave had hit the national capital.

The positivity rate, or the proportion of the total samples that return positive, has also surged to 2.44%. A positivity rate of over 2% recorded over two consecutive days leads to the third level of restrictions under the Graded Action Response Plan of the government.

The increase in positivity rate — from 1.73% a day ago — was seen despite a high number of tests being conducted. Delhi conducted over 73,590 tests on Thursday. Over 62,200 tests were conducted each day on average over the last one week.

Delhi now has over 4,000 active cases of which 226 are in hospitals.

The increase in cases is likely linked to the fast-spreading Omicron variant. “Covid-19 cases have increased rapidly over the last few days. As per the genome sequencing data, 46% of these are Omicron cases, including people who have travel history as well as those who do not have any history. This means omicron is now in Delhi,” Health Minister Satyendar Jain had said during an online briefing.

However, after a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, the government did not impose even the second tier of restrictions, which should have kicked in at 1%, keeping migrants in mind.