Delhi may see 17,000 Covid cases today, positivity rate at 17%: Health minister

Health minister Satyendar Jain said Delhi is the first to witness a surge in infections because most of the international flights come to the capital.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said the national capital is expected to add nearly 17,000 new Covid-19 cases on Friday with a positivity rate of around 17 per cent.

A health worker collects a swab sample for Covid-19 test at Anand Vihar on Thursday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

A day ago, Delhi logged 15,097 fresh infections, pushing the active caseload to 31,498 and the cumulative tally to 14,89,463.

Jain said Delhi is the first to witness a surge in infections because most of the international flights come to the capital. "That is the reason we have implemented stricter measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 as compared to other states. Some people may say that this is not needed but it is better than repenting later," Jain was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Regarding the World Health Organisation terming the Omicron variant of coronavirus "mild", the minister said only experts will be able to tell if it is mild or not.

"I can give you the data I have. Delhi has around 31,498 active cases and only 1,091 hospital beds are occupied. When we had an equal number of cases last time, around 7,000 beds were occupied," Jain said.

Delhi will implement a weekend curfew from Friday night and it will remain in place throughout Saturday and Sunday as part of the latest restrictions imposed by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to contain the rapid resurgence of the coronavirus disease, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The capital remained the second top contributor of Omicron cases in the country with 465 detections so far. Of these, only 57 have been discharged.

(With inputs from agencies)