Delhi / Delhi may report 14,000 COVID cases today, no plan of lockdown: Satyendar Jain

New Delhi: Delhi's health minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday that the national capital is expected to record more than 14,000 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) today. He, however, ruled out imposing any lockdown in the national capital.

Jain said Delhi is in a “comfortable position” in terms of hospital bed occupancy and added that no death due to Omicron has been reported in the city.

Talking about the precautions to be needed during the spread of Covid-19 in the national capital, Jain had emphasised on home isolation of asymptomatic persons who came in contact with infected people.

"Corona patients in home isolation should take care of these things: isolate yourself from other members of the household; stay in a well-ventilated room with cross-ventilation; wear a triple-layer mask; take special care of cleanliness; keep yourself busy, talk to family and relatives on phone from time to time," he tweeted on Wednesday.

It was in response to revised guidelines issued by the Union health ministry. It stated that home isolation of Covid-19 patients will end after at least seven days from testing positive and no fever for three successive days. Also, there is no need for re-testing after the home isolation period is over.

The number of people under home isolation in Delhi was 11,551 on Wednesday, a day the national capital recorded 10,665 cases with a positivity rate of 11.88 per cent and eight deaths.

The national capital has recorded a huge spike in the number of Covid-19 cases. The Delhi government has attributed the surge to the highly contagious Omicron variant. According to Jain, the third wave of Covid-19 has hit the city.

According to official data from the Delhi government, 65 per cent of samples, whose genome sequencing reports came out between January 1 and 3, were found to have the Omicron variant as against 28 per cent from December 1 to 31.

Amid the rise in cases, Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia announced a return of the weekend curfew as the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) decided to reimpose some more restrictions.