Eighty-four per cent of total Covid-19 cases in the national capital are now of the Omicron variant, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Monday.
“In Delhi, Genome sequencing of Covid-19 patients has revealed that 84% of total cases are now Omicron variant affected. It means the new wave is due to the new variant,” Jain said.
The Health Minister said positivity rate in the city had reached 6%. “The government is saying that the number of cases will peak in a week’s time,” he said.
In just the first two days of January, Delhi reported more coronavirus cases than recorded between August and November, as per official data. The national capital has registered 5,910 Covid-19 cases since January 1. On Saturday, the city reported 2,716 Covid-19 cases while on Sunday this number went up to 3,194, according to Delhi State Health Bulletin. The official numbers analysed by CNN-News18 showed that Delhi has reported 4,669 cases between August 1 and November 30.
Since the last week of December, the national capital has been witnessing a rise in fresh coronavirus cases. In the month of December, Delhi recorded 7,277 cases of coronavirus infection – the highest since June when the city reported 7,948 cases.
Jain on Monday also informed the Delhi Assembly that there was no shortage of medical staff in state-run hospitals and clinics at a time when the national capital is seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases in the last few days. He was replying to a question by BJP MLA O P Sharma. While Jain stated there was no shortage of doctors, nurses, paramedics and non-medical staff in dispensaries, hospitals and clinics, the government also issued a list of posts lying vacant, with the minister saying that the government is taking steps to fill them.
The government was also asked about the steps being taken to fill the vacant posts. The government informed the Assembly that they have been sending letters to UPSC and DSSSB demanding for the filling up of the vacant posts. According to numbers shared by the government, 1,236 sanctioned posts of specialists are there in state-run medical facilities and of these 932 have been filled with regular candidates and 43 posts have contractual employees while 261 posts are lying vacant.
There are 1,357 sanctioned posts of General Duty Medical Officer and out of these 1,219 posts have been filled while 44 posts have been filled up by contractual employees. Eighty-four GDMO posts are lying vacant.
A total of 1,700 cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected across 23 states and Union Territories so far, out of which 639 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union health ministry’s data updated on Monday. Maharashtra has recorded the maximum number of 510 cases, followed by Delhi (351), Kerala (156), Gujarat (136), Tamil Nadu (121) and Rajasthan (120).
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