Omicron found in Delhi's 65 per cent samples between January 1 and 3; city sees significant jump in deaths, hospitalisations

New Delhi: Sixty-five per cent of Covid samples in Delhi, whose genome sequencing reports came out between January 1 and 3, were found to have the Omicron variant as against 28 per cent from December 1 to 31, official data showed.

Of the 72 samples, whose reports arrived in the first three days of this year, 47 were found to be infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus, while Delta and its sublineages were found in 20 samples.

Only seven per cent had other variants.

Delhi on Wednesday reported 10,665 new coronavirus cases, almost double the number of infections logged the day before, with the positivity rate shooting up to 11.88 per cent, according to health department data.

The Delhi government has attributed the surge to the highly contagious Omicron variant.

According to Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, the third wave of COVID-19 has hit the city.

The Delhi government's data showed that between December 1 and 31 last year, 28 per cent of 1,553 Covid samples sent for genome sequencing were found to have the Omicron variant, 34 per cent Delta and 38 per cent others.

Between December 25-31, reports of 563 samples arrived and out of these, 62 per cent had Omicron, 22 per cent Delta and 16 per cent others variants of coronavirus.

Amid the rise in cases, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced a return of the weekend curfew as the Delhi Disaster Management Authority decided to reimpose some more restrictions in the wake of a fresh surge in Covid infections.

Delhi on Wednesday reported 10,665 new coronavirus cases, almost double the number of infections logged the day before, with the positivity rate shooting up to 11.88 per cent, according to health department data.

The number of new cases is the highest since May 12, when 13,287 people were diagnosed with the disease.

The positivity rate is the highest since May 14 last year, when it stood at 12.40 per cent.

The number of active cases increased to 23,307 from 14,889 on Tuesday.

A total of 2,239 patients were discharged in a day, the health bulletin said.

With the 10,665 fresh cases, Delhi's infection tally climbed to 14,74,366.

Of this, over 14.25 lakh patients have recovered from the disease, the bulletin said.

The death toll stands at 25,121, it said.

The city has reported 14 deaths so far this month.

Nine deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in December last year, seven in November, four in October and five in September, according to official data.

According to the health bulletin, 89,742 tests, including 72,145 RT-PCR ones, were conducted in Delhi on Tuesday.

Till now, the government had been conducting around 65,000 tests in a day on an average.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had last month said the city government is prepared to conduct 3 lakh tests a day if the need arises.

Even though the Delhi government has repeatedly stressed that most cases this time would be mild or asymptomatic and not require hospitalisation, data shows an uptick in the number of Covid patients in hospitals and those requiring oxygen and ventilator support.

According to the data, the number of Covid patients in city hospitals increased by 107 per cent in just two days -- from 342 on Monday to 708 on Wednesday.

There are 22 severe patients in hospitals compared to seven on Monday and 14 on Tuesday.

At present, 551 patients are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and do not require oxygen, the data stated.

Earlier in the day, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the third wave of the pandemic has hit the capital.

The minister had earlier said Omicron is the dominant variant circulating in the community now.

The Delhi government on Tuesday announced a weekend curfew and work from home for its offices.

During the weekend curfew, which will come into force at 10 pm on Friday and will be in place till 5 am on Monday, all essential services will be allowed in the national capital.

Along with the weekend curfew, night curfew will also continue to be in place during weekdays.

The number of deaths due to COVID-19 rose to eight in Delhi on Wednesday, the highest since June 16 last year, while that of single-day hospital admissions saw a significant jump to 222, amid a massive spike in the case tally, official figures showed.

The national capital recorded three Covid deaths on Tuesday, while the number was one each on January 3, 2 and 1.

A health bulletin issued by the authorities reports the data about the cases and deaths recorded the previous day.

Earlier in the day, a government official had said nine Covid deaths were recorded on Wednesday.

The city also logged 10,665 fresh cases of the infection with a positivity rate of 11.9 per cent, according to the bulletin.

Delhi had recorded five Covid deaths in September last year, four in october, seven in November and nine in December.

According to officials, 140 new admissions to city hospitals were reported on January 3 and 222 on January 4.

Such numbers were last witnessed at the end of May last year.

According to Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, the third wave of COVID-19 has hit the city.

Jain said the Delhi government had been sending the samples of all the coronavirus patients for genome sequencing to determine if the Omicron variant of the virus had spread in the country.

"It was just an academic exercise. Now we know that Omicron has spread in the country, only 300-400 samples are being sent for genome sequencing," he added.

Latest government data showed that the number of patients in the city hospitals increased from 247 on January 1 to 531 on January 4.

The number of patients on oxygen support has also gone up from 94 to 168 in the last three days, and the number of patients on ventilator support has climbed from four to 14.

As on Tuesday, 8,511 beds were vacant in the city hospitals, while the numbers of vacant beds in the Covid care centres and dedicated Covid health centres were 4,223 and 139 respectively.

A total of 8,593 patients were in home isolation.

The Delhi government on Tuesday announced a weekend curfew and work from home for its offices as the city recorded 5,481 fresh Covid cases, the highest number since May 16 last year, with a positivity rate of 8.37 per cent and three more fatalities due to the viral disease.

During the weekend curfew that will come into force at 10 pm on Friday and will be in place till 5 am on Monday, all essential services will be allowed.

The night curfew on weekdays will also continue to be in place.

Jain had said the weekend curfew should not be treated as a lockdown.

The health minister and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal have been saying that most of the Covid cases this time are mild or asymptomatic and do not need medical care in hospitals.

Jain had said the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was behind the surge in the number of cases in Delhi and that more restrictions will be clamped if the bed occupancy rate goes up.

Kejriwal had earlier said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is ready to handle up to one lakh Covid cases a day in a worst-case scenario.

He had informed that Delhi currently has an oxygen capacity of 1,363.73 metric tonnes.

During the second Covid wave, the peak oxygen demand had surged to 700 metric tonnes in the national capital.

The government has ramped up the city's medical oxygen infrastructure to tackle the third wave of the pandemic and in view of the threat posed by Omicron.

It has also procured 6,000 D-type cylinders.

It did not have such cylinders till May 31 last year.

Delhi also has pressure adsorption plants that have a capacity of producing 130.7 metric tonnes of oxygen.

There were no such facilities in the city till May 31 last year.

Two cryogenic bottling plants with a total capacity of 12.5 metric tonnes will be commissioned, and these plants will be able to refill 1,400 jumbo cylinders a day, the chief minister had said.

Till May 31, the government had three re-fillers that could fill about 1,500 cylinders per day.

Four of the five coronavirus patients who succumbed to the infection at the LNJP Hospital here had co-morbid conditions and were aged above 60, according to a senior hospital official.

The hospital recorded five COVID-19 fatalities on Tuesday.

The hospital, which is the Delhi government's largest health facility, was the first hospital to be designated for Omicron treatment.

"There were two cancer patients who were shifted from GB Pant Hospital. One of them had liver and gall bladder cancer, and another was a 65-year-old who had lung cancer. Another patient had COPD and respiratory failure and the fourth one had diabetes, hypertension and heart ailments," said the hospital's medical director, Dr Suresh Kumar.

Out of 750 oxygen beds at the facility, 659 are vacant while seven patients are in the ICU, of which three are on ventilator support, according to official data on the Delhi Corona application.

On Wednesday, Delhi reported 10,665 new coronavirus cases, almost double the number of infections logged the day before, with the positivity rate shooting up to 11.88 per cent, according to health department data.

The Delhi government has cancelled the leave of all staff and directed them not to leave station, citing the "grimness" of the situation due to rising COVID-19 cases in the city and the need for enough manpower.

The national capital on Wednesday reported 10,665 new coronavirus cases, almost double the number of infections logged the day before, with the positivity rate shooting up to 11.88 percent, according to the health department bulletin on Wednesday.

It is anticipated that the containment of the pandemic will involve a huge mobilisation of human resources at various levels in the city government, stated a Delhi government memorandum on Wednesday.

"The competent authority directs to cancel all leave granted, except medical leave, to all officers/officials/staff in all the departments, offices of Delhi government until further order," it said.

No leave, except for medical reasons, shall be granted to the officers, officials and staff of different departments of the GNCT of Delhi nor shall they be allowed to leave station, it further directed.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority, after its meeting on Tuesday, observed that numbers of COVID-19 cases (including the cases of Omicron variant) have been rapidly increasing over the last few days and the positivity rate has now crossed six percent.

The Authority in its order mentioned the "grimness of the situation" and further steps to be taken for containment of the spread of the virus, including work from home direction for all Delhi government employees barring these associated with essential services.

The DDMA has identified essential and emergency services including health, sanitation, police, fire services among others which will continue to function during the night and weekend curfews.

The 10665 fresh cases reported on Wednesday are the highest since May 12, when 13,287 people were diagnosed with the disease in Delhi.

The number of active cases has increased to 23,307 from 14,889 on Tuesday.

A total of 2,239 patients were discharged in a day, the health bulletin said.

With the 10,665 fresh cases, Delhi's infection tally climbed to 14,74,366.

Of this, over 14.25 lakh patients have recovered from the disease, the bulletin said.

The Delhi government has asked its nine hospitals to increase their cumulative Covid bed capacity to 4,350 from the existing 3,316, an official order said on Wednesday.

The Health and Family Welfare Department of the Delhi government issued the order.

The hospitals it addressed to are India Gandhi Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Burari Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, Ambedkar Nagar Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital, and Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital.

According to the order, the Indira Gandhi Hospital has been directed to increase its Covid bed capacity to 1,500 from 1,181.

The order directed the authorities at the Lok Nayak and the Guru Teg Bahadur hospitals to enhance their Covid bed capacity to 750 from the existing 650 and 600 respectively.

Similarly, the administration at the Deep Chand Bandhu, Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospitals were directed to enhance their respective Covid bed capacity to 150 each.

The Burari Hospital has been asked to hike its Covid bed capacity to 400 from 300.

The Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital will now have an increased Covid bed capacity of 300 beds, up from 150.

The Covid bed capacity at the Ambedkar Nagar Hospital will be increased to 200, the order said.

The order further directed all medical superintendents and directors of these hospitals to ensure that all preparations are made for engaging necessary manpower and equipments to meet bed escalation operationalisation.

Delhi on Wednesday reported 10,665 new coronavirus cases, almost double the number of infections logged the day before, with the positivity rate shooting up to 11.88 per cent, health department data showed.

The number of new cases is the highest since May 12 last year, when 13,287 people were diagnosed with the disease.

To curb the spread of the virus, the Delhi government on Tuesday announced a weekend curfew and work from home for its offices.

During the weekend curfew, which will come into force at 10 pm on Friday and will be in place till 5 am on Monday, all essential services will be allowed in the national capital.

Along with the weekend curfew, night curfew will also continue.