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A total of 97% of the patients who died of Covid-19 in Delhi between January and March had contracted the Omicron variant of the virus, reported news agency PTI, citing government data.
Genome sequencing of 578 samples collected from the deceased showed that 560 of them had the Omicron variant.
The remaining 18 people were carrying other variants, including Delta, which fuelled the ferocious second wave of infections in April and May last year, and sublineages.
Overall, the Omicron variant was found in all the 504 samples analysed at genome sequencing laboratories in the capital in March.
Driven by Omicron, the third wave of Covid-19 had seen a lesser number of hospitalisations and severe cases across the country.
Only 2,784 (17.96%) of the 15,505 Covid-19 beds in hospitals in the national capital were occupied on 17 January. Contrastingly, during the second wave, 20,117 (92%) of the 21,839 beds were occupied on 6 May.
In view of this, the government data shows that Covid-19 was not the primary reason for most Covid-19 fatalities in 2022.
Another surge in cases
This comes as 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.
Against this backdrop, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Wednesday decided to come up with a separate Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for schools in consultation with experts.
The Delhi government had last week issued guidelines for schools asking them to close specific wings or classrooms wherever any student or teacher is found infected.
Further, it also decided to make the wearing of masks mandatory in public places and impose a fine of ₹500 on violators.
Delhi has 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 the city.