NEW DELHI: Amid growing concerns about another wave of the Covid pandemic, the national capital on Friday recorded 180 fresh cases, the highest in six months. At 0.29 per cent, the positivity rate was also highest since June 15. The total number of cases reported in Delhi so far rose to 14,42,813. Over 14.16 lakh patients have recovered from the infection.
No Covid death was reported on Friday. Five deaths have been reported in December so far. The death toll due to the coronavirus infection in Delhi stands at 25,103. Doctors, meanwhile, attributed the spike in cases to increased testing.
"The testing has increased. A large number of travellers who are coming back from the UK, Dubai, etc. are infected and so are their contacts. These are the main reasons for the rise in case count," said Dr Suresh Kumar, director, Lok Nayak Hospital.
A total of 62,697 tests were conducted on Friday, of which 57,583 were RT-PCR and 5,114 rapid antigen tests.As many as 67 cases of Omicron variant have been recorded in the city so far, the second highest in the country after Maharashtra. Out of these, 23 patients have been discharged.
Kumar said a majority of the patients getting infected with Omicron were already vaccinated and a few of them even got booster shots as well. "We are further analysing the data on re-infections but the patients have not shown any severe symptoms,” he added. Kumar said it would be too early to predict the third wave of the pandemic.
On the brighter side, an aggressive vaccination drive will prevent any drastic situation as people may not face severe symptoms, said doctors. "Vaccination can’t prevent re-infection but can control its severity. Re-infection can happen to anyone but with two doses of vaccine, the symptoms will be mild or the patient will be asymptomatic," a senior doctor at ICMR told The New Indian Express.