NEW DELHI: Omicron is spreading its tentacles insidiously in the national capital. There were 10 cases of this new Covid variant in Delhi till Thursday, December 16, 2021.
Also, Covid cases are going up slowly.
The national capital on Thursday recorded 85 fresh Covid cases, the highest in four months, while the positivity rate also rose to 0.15 per cent, according to the Delhi government’s health bulletin.
On Thursday, four more Omicron patients were discharged from Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital. A total of five omicron-positive patients have been discharged so far. Five are still admitted to the LNJP Hospital in Delhi. All patients are asymptomatic.
Health Minister Satyendar Jain said Omicron variant was detected in 10 people so far and none of them has developed “severe” disease. Several international travellers are turning out to be Covid positive upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Delhi’s first Omicron patient— a 37-year-old man from Ranchi—was discharged on Monday after he tested negative for Covid-19 twice, the officials said.
He had travelled from Tanzania to Doha and from there to Delhi on a Qatar Airways flight on December 2. He stayed in Johannesburg in South Africa for a week and had mild symptoms.
Currently, India has a dozen countries on its at-risk list.
These countries include UK, South Africa, Botswana, Brazil, China, Ghana, Hong Kong, Israel, Mauritius, New Zealand, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Under new norms, RT-PCR tests are mandatory for the passengers arriving from “at-risk” countries, and allowed to leave the airport only after the results come.
As per a health department official, Covid cases were not classified on the basis of variants in the bulletin and there was no separate category for Omicron cases.
Of the nearly 1.5 crore people eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in Delhi, over one crore have received both doses of vaccine, according to government data.
According to the CoWIN portal, over 2.46 crore doses have been administered in the city since the inoculation exercise started on January 16.
As many as 1,00,20,014 people have received both doses.
Over 1.08 lakh people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in Delhi on Thursday.
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Authorities in Northwest Delhi district have administered the maximum number of doses (over 29 lakh) in the capital, followed by Southwest Delhi (28.69 lakh) and West Delhi (26.57 lakh).
In view of the threat posed by the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the authorities have increased the pace of vaccination in Delhi over the last few weeks.
A government official said district authorities have set up special facilities to contact people who are eligible for the second dose but have not taken it.
"We call up such people and ask them to take their second dose immediately," he said.
The authorities are also identifying clusters having a low vaccination rate.
"Anganwadi workers, self-help groups and non-government organisations go to such clusters and convince people to get vaccinated," the official said.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said 10 cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in the national capital so far and none of them has developed "severe" disease.
He said 40 people are currently admitted to the special facility at the Lok Nayak Hospital for isolating and treating suspected Omicron cases.
Of these, 38 are Covid-positive.
The remaining two are either contacts of the patients or have Covid-like symptoms.
(With PTI Inputs)