Delhi stares at more curbs as minister warns of positivity rate reaching 6.5%

National capital Delhi is expected to record another huge spike in the number of daily Covid-19 cases on Monday, health minister Satyendar Jain said.

He also said that 84 per cent of Covid-19 cases recorded in the last two days in Delhi were of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus.

“84% of the Covis-19 cases reported in Delhi in the past two days were of the Omicron variant. Delhi’s expected to report around 4,000 cases today with the positivity rate rising to 6.5 per cent,” Jain told reporters.

Currently, 202 patients are admitted in various hospitals in Delhi, he added.

The number of cases in Delhi have been increasing at a rapid pace in the past few weeks.

On Sunday, Delhi reported 3,194 new Covid-19 cases, up from 2,716 cases reported a day earlier. While Sunday’s tally was the highest single-day rise in since May 20, the test positivity rate stood at 4.59 per cent.

Delhi’s active cases increased to 8,397 on Sunday from 6,360 recorded until a day before, according to the government’s daily health bulletin.

The national capital is under restrictions implemented as part of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which has kept Delhi in ‘yellow’ alert category. In this, cinema halls and theatres are closed, and so are other places of gathering. Night curfew is also in place, from 10pm to 5am.

According to GRAP, if Covid-19 positivity rate crosses the five per cent mark and stays above it for two consecutive days, Delhi will be put under ‘Red’ alert.

This means that there would be total curfew – night as well as weekend – on movement of people. However, there will be certain exemptions based on the categories decided by the government.

Shops and establishments dealing with non-essential goods and services will be closed. Malls and weekly markets will also be shut down.