New Delhi: Delhi is expected to report around 20,000 fresh cases today, state Health Minister Satyendra Jain said, a day after the fresh Covid cases in the national capital peaked to its highest in eight months. Delhi has been witnessing a huge spike in fresh cases in the span of last several days with the positivity rate rising to over 17 per cent.
"Delhi will report around 20,000 fresh cases today, positivity rate to rise by 1-2%. Currently, only 10% of hospital beds are occupied in the city," Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
On Friday, Delhi reported 17,335 fresh Covid cases, the highest single-day rise since May 8. Delhi's positivity rate has risen to 17.73 per cent from 15.34 per cent on Thursday when the city had logged 15,097 new infections.
This rise is the highest since May 8 when Delhi logged 17,364 cases with a positivity rate of 23.34 per cent, while 332 deaths were also recorded on that day.
The sudden spike in new infections in the span of last several days is being recorded amid a significant jump in cases of new Omicron variant of Covid in Delhi. Today, the city reported 48 new cases of Omicron to take the total number of cases of the new variant to 513. Only Maharashtra, with 876 cases, precedes Delhi in terms of the number of total Omicron cases in the country.
However, this time, the city has reported six times lower hospital admissions as compared to the first wave of infections.
During the height of the second wave of the pandemic, 28,395 cases, the highest-ever single-day tally, and 277 deaths were recorded in Delhi on April 20 last year, according to official figures.
Nine COVID-19 deaths were reported here in December last year, and seven in November, according to official data. Delhi had recorded four Covid deaths in October and five in September.
Health experts have cautioned that as far as the surge in coronavirus cases in Delhi is concerned, "it's a wildfire right now".
"This is expected to last at least over two months, and the patients' footfall in our hospital has increased phenomenally in the last few days. Since the number of cases has seen a massive jump, more number of deaths is also being reported," Dr. Suranjit Chatterjee, a senior consultant at Apollo Hospitals, was quoted as saying by PTI.
With inputs from agencies