Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that the capital city is likely to record 17,000 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday, 7 January, and that the peak of this wave is expected to arrive soon.
He added that the positivity rate of COVID-19 infections in the national capital has reached 17 percent on Friday from 10 percent on Wednesday, 5 January.
The health minister said that the government is doing everything in its power to control the spread of the virus.
"That is the reason we have implemented stricter measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 as compared to other states. Some people may say that this is not needed but it is better than repenting later."Satyendar Jain, Delhi Health Minister, as quoted by PTI
The health minister attributed the surge in cases in the national capital to the number of international flights landing in Delhi.
"There are more than 30,000 active COVID-19 cases in Delhi and 24 patients are on ventilator, " Jain added, and warned that residents of the capital city need to be alert for the next two months.
In response to questions about whether the Omicron variant is a ‘mild variant’, he said he can only respond with data. He clarified that even with 31,498 active cases only 1,091 hospital beds are occupied in New Delhi.
He said, “When we had an equal number of cases last time, around 7,000 beds were occupied.”
Jain added that the severity of infection is less this time.
Less Hospitalisation This Wave: Health Minister
“A total of 15,000 cases in a day would have meant around 3,000 to 4,000 hospital admissions if this wave of infections was driven by the Delta variant. Hospital admissions now are not even 10 percent of it (number of daily cases). So, there is a lot of difference and we have to accept it,” said the health minister.
According to news agency ANI, Jain said that COVID patients in home isolation can be discharged after seven days of testing positive if they do not show symptoms for three consecutive days.
Re-testing will not be mandatory in this case, he said.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
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