Children who have recovered from Covid-19 return home, in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Express Photo: Tashi Tobgyal) Delhi reported three more Omicron cases on Wednesday, taking the total number of infections of the new variant to 549.
Delhi has the third highest number of Omicron cases, after Maharashtra with 1,367 cases and Rajasthan with 792, data by the central government revealed. India has reported 5,488 Omicron cases to date.
Delhi has been reporting fewer cases of the new variant since the government stopped sequencing all positive samples. The Delhi Health Minister had said that 81% of all samples sequenced over the New Year weekend were that of omicron, thereby becoming the dominant variant in the city. Following that, sequencing of all samples was irrelevant, the minister said, while adding that around 300 surveillance samples were being sequenced now.
However, Delhi continues to see a surge in Covid-19 cases, with the capital recording 27,571 infections on Wednesday, moving closer to 28,000-mark that was witnessed during the peak of the second wave in April-May last year. Delhi has also seen a rise in the number of Covid-related deaths with 40 people succumbing to the virus on Wednesday — the highest since June 10. So far, 133 people have died because of the virus this month. There were only nine deaths reported in December, seven in November, four in October, and five in September.
However, doctors across the city said that most of those who died were under treatment for other critical conditions, like heart and liver diseases. Of the 87,445 active cases, 2,363 are in hospitals. There are 91 patients on ventilator support and 648 on oxygen support.
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