DELHI SEES A SPIKE IN COVID CASES, NIGHT CURFEW IMPOSED

India reported 6,987 fresh Covid-19 cases and 162 deaths in the last 24 hours, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday. The country’s active caseload currently stands at 76,766, the lowest since March 2020. However, Delhi saw a spike in cases, with 290 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, which is the highest number recorded since 10 June. As Delhi continues to witness a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases, a night curfew has been imposed by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led government in the national capital from Monday. The curfew will be imposed from 11 pm to 5 am. With these, active cases in the national capital have gone up to 1,103. One person has succumbed to the infection in Delhi in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 25,105.

Delhi’s daily Covid-19 cases crossed the 200-mark for the second consecutive day. According to the Delhi government’s health bulletin on Sunday, a positivity rate of 0.55% was observed after 50,059 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. Sunday’s positivity rate is the highest since 4 June when it was 0.67. With the addition of new cases, the cumulative caseload in Delhi has reached 14,43,352 including 1103 active cases. The total number of containment zones in the national capital as of date is 279.

The cumulative positivity rate is 4.45% while the case fatality is 1.74% in the national capital. The national capital also reported one death in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 25,105.

A total number of 120 people have been recovered from the coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 14,17, 144.

As per an earlier order passed by the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) a “Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)” will come into effect if the positivity rate breaches 0.5% for two consecutive days leading to shutting down of various economic activities in the national capital.

Dr Suresh Kumar, MD, with Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, said patients who were suffering from Omicron variant of Covid-19 have recovered without the use of oxygen support, steroids, Remdesivir or ventilator. “Majority of the patients who have come to us were either asymptomatic or had minor symptoms. All the patients are recovering, not a single patient needed oxygen support, steroids, Remdesivir or ventilator,” said Kumar. “So far 51 Omicron patients have come to LNJP hospital, out of which 40 patients have been cured and discharged. 11 are currently being treated here,” he said.

“Today, 10 more suspects have come from the international airport, we have sent their samples for genome sequencing,” he added.

According to the Health Ministry, 422 cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus have been reported in the country so far. Out of this, Maharashtra topped the list with 108 confirmed cases followed by Delhi (79 cases) and Gujarat (43 cases).

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the active cases in the country account for less than 1% of total cases and are currently at 0.22% which is the lowest since March last year. With the recovery of 7,091 patients in the last 24 hours, the cumulative tally of recovered patients since the beginning of the pandemic has increased to 3,42,30,354. The current recovery rate at 98.40% which is the highest since March 2020. With the addition of new fatalities, the death toll mounted to 4,79,682. With 9,45,455 Covid tests conducted in the last 24 hours, India has so far conducted over 67.19 crore (67,19,97,082) cumulative tests.

According to the Union Health Ministry, the weekly positivity rate is at 0.62% remains less than 1% for the last 42 days now. The daily positivity rate reported being 0.74%. The daily positivity rate has remained below 2% for the last 83 days.

With the administration of 32,90,766 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 141.37 crore.