Positivity rate up to 2.44%, 1,796 fresh Covid-19 cases
New Delhi: Even as the Capital on Friday reported another record surge in Covid-19 cases with 1,796 new cases detected in 24 hours, the daily positivity rate shot up to 2.44 per cent. The city, however, did not report any new deaths from the virus. With the Graded Response Action Plan in place currently, such a surge would have by now already warranted stricter curbs and the sounding of the "Orange" alert.
But with hospitalisations remaining under control so far, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority had earlier this week decided that they would only increase curbs beyond the Yellow alert if hospitalisations start increasing again. But in preparation, the Delhi government has already started setting up large Covid Care Centres, and additional Covid isolation and ICU beds.
According to the latest health bulletin, active cases in the city have now risen to over 4,400 as the death toll remained at 25,107. But despite the considerably low number of deaths being reported in this surge, December has recorded nine Covid deaths in total — the highest number of deaths in the last four months.
The Delhi government said that it had conducted over 73,000 tests in the last 24 hours, of which 2.44 per cent came back positive — with over 50 per cent of the new cases now turning out to be Omicron. Authorities have thus said that they will now not be able to send all positive cases for genome sequencing.
Meanwhile, indicating the rapid spread of the virus in this surging wave, the number of containment zones in the city has now increased to 914 — an eight-fold rise from what it was at the beginning of the month.
South district has the maximum number of active containment zones at 402, followed by west at 108 and New Delhi at 84 zones. Northeast district has zero active containment zones, with only 53 active cases. East district has six active containment zones, while the central district has 18 such zones.
And with experts already having declared that Omicron is spreading faster than the Delta variant — which induced the horrific second wave in 2021, the Delhi government has now also augmented medical oxygen infrastructure.
The government has procured 6,000 D-type cylinders — each of which can hold 46 litres of oxygen. Such cylinders were not available in the city till May 31. The data showed that the Delhi Transport Corporation has over 9,115 cylinders in its possession.
The city also has Pressure Adsorption plants that have a capacity of producing 99.66 metric tonnes of oxygen. There were no such facilities in Delhi till May 31. The government will also be installing four more plants by January 5, 2022.
Two cryogenic bottling plants with a capacity of 12.5 metric tonnes will be commissioned this week, and these will have the capacity to refill 1,400 jumbo cylinders in a day.
