125 new Covid cases, positivity 0.2%

New Delhi: With fears of a fresh Covid wave looming, Delhi on Wednesday again reported over 100 cases in 24 hours, with authorities recording 125 new cases and zero new deaths from the virus. Significantly, the number of active cases in the city has started rising considerably with the tally currently over 600.

However, the number of hospitalisations are still low, giving the Delhi government time to prepare for all eventualities if a third wave does hit the city.

According to Wednesday's health bulletin, the daily positivity rate here remained at 0.2 per cent for the third consecutive day after remaining below 0.1 per cent for the three to four months before. Testing in the Capital is also being increased on a daily basis, with authorities conducting over 63,000 tests in 24 hours, compared to the around 50,000 the day before.

Wednesday's reported fresh Covid cases are the highest reported cases in a day since June 22. With this, the total COVID-19 cases reported in the city so far increased to 14,42,515. Of these, over 14.16 lakh have recuperated from the disease, the department said. The death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 25,102.

Delhi had recorded 134 coronavirus cases on June 22 with a positivity rate of 0.20 per cent while eight people had succumbed to the disease, according to data shared by the city's health department here. On Sunday, Delhi had recorded 107 coronavirus cases while the positivity rate was 0.17 per cent.

The national capital has recorded four deaths due to Coivd in December so far. Seven deaths were reported in November, four in October and five in September.

The city reported 102 cases on Tuesday with a positivity rate of 0.20 per cent and 91 cases on Monday with the same positivity rate. On Sunday, the city logged 107 cases while the positivity rate was 0.17 per cent. As many as 86 cases were reported on Saturday and 69 on Friday with a positivity rate of 0.13 per cent and 0.12 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that genome sequencing of all Covid positive samples began in Delhi on Wednesday to detect whether Omicron had started spreading in the community. The national capital is recording around 100-125 cases a day, while it has the capacity of genome sequencing of 400-500 samples daily.

"The Delhi government-run labs at the Lok Nayak Hospital and the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences can sequence 100 samples each day. Two Centre-run labs in Delhi can sequence 200-300 samples a day. So, 400-500 samples can be analysed in a day," Jain said.

"Around 100 to 125 new cases are emerging every day.... Samples of all COVID-19 patients will be sequenced from Wednesday. Through this, we will be able to ascertain the number of cases from the community. Till now, the maximum number of (Omicron) cases have come from foreign countries (sic)," he told reporters.

Jain had said Tuesday that three Omicron patients in Delhi had no travel history.

Amid the Omicron scare, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Monday called for the Centre to clear approvals for a booster vaccine dose for those who had taken the first two doses.