New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday said his government is fully prepared to deal with the potentially more contagious Coronavirus variant 'Omicron' and has set up a dedicated facility at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital if such cases are reported.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has decided to conduct RT-PCR testing on all people arriving from 'high-risk' countries, genome sequencing of the positive cases and mandatorily isolating the passengers according to the Centre's guidelines.
The Delhi Health Department has designated Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital as the dedicated facility to treat patients infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The hospital has been asked to earmark wards for isolating and treating such patients. "The Delhi government is fully prepared to fight the new variant of coronavirus, which has also been declared as a 'variant of concern' by WHO. Hereby, we are designating Lok Nayak hospital as a dedicated hospital to treat the new variant of coronavirus (Omicron)," Jain tweeted.
Meanwhile, seven COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the national capital in November so far this year, the highest count due to Coronavirus infection in the last three months, according to official data.
Delhi had recorded four Covid deaths in October and five in September.
On November 29, the city logged one fatality and 34 fresh cases with an increased positivity rate of 0.08 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
The city recorded a death each on November 27 and November 28 as well.
The number of cumulative cases on Monday stood at 14,40,900. Over 14.15 lakh patients have recovered from the infection.
The death toll due to the coronavirus infection in Delhi now stands at 25,098.
The death recorded on Monday was the seventh fatality due to coronavirus infection reported in November. Earlier this month, two deaths were recorded on November 12 and one each on November 14 and 15.
In July, the last time zero death was recorded was on July 29 when 51 cases were reported with a positivity rate of
0.08 per cent, according to official figures.
In August too, the last time nil fatality was recorded was on August 29 when 31 cases were logged.
The daily case count had dropped to 17 on September 13, with no death being recorded that day, while the positivity rate stood at 0.04 per cent, according to official data.
Meanwhile, the national Capital registered 34 Coronavirus cases and zero related death in a day, while the positivity rate stood at 0.07 per cent, according to the data shared by the health department here on Tuesday.
With the new cases, the Coronavirus infection tally in the city climbed to 14,40,934. Of this, over 14.15 lakh patients have recovered from the disease.The death toll stands at 25,098. There are 287 active Covid cases in Delhi, up from 285 the previous day.