The national capital reports 10 new cases of the new Covid variant Omicron, taking the tally to 20, said Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday. Out of the ten of these patients have been discharged, he said.
Out of 40 samples, 10 samples were sent for genome sequencing tested positive for the new variant, said the minister. The minister had on Thursday said several international travellers are turning out coronavirus positive upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
On Tuesday, he had informed that, the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 has not spread in the community till now and the situation is under control.
Delhi’s first case of the Omicron variant was reported in a 37-year-old man from Ranchi who was detected on December 5. On Monday he was discharged.
He had travelled from Tanzania to Doha and from there, to Delhi on a Qatar Airways flight on December 2. He stayed in Johannesburg in South Africa for a week and had mild symptoms.
10 new cases of #OmicronVariant reported in Delhi, taking the total number of cases of the variant here to 20. A total of 10 people, out of these 20, have been discharged: Delhi Health Minister Sh. @SatyendarJain
— Shaleen (@ShaleenMitra) December 17, 2021
Meanwhile, 40 people are currently admitted to the special facility at the Lok Nayak Hospital meant for isolating and treating suspected Omicron cases, Medical Director Suresh Kumar said.
Under new norms, RT-PCR tests are mandatory for the passengers arriving from the “at-risk” countries and they are allowed to leave the airport only after the results come. Also, two per cent of the passengers arriving on flights from other countries are being tested randomly.
India reported 7,447 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, said a health ministry update on Friday morning. Besides, 391 related fatalities took the death count to 4,76,869 in the country. The active cases currently stand at 86,415, which account for 0.25% of the total cases.
With the administration of 70,46,805 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 135.99 Cr (1,35,99,96,267) as per provisional reports till 7 am today. This has been achieved through 1,42,79,769 sessions.
The recovery of 7,886 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients (since the beginning of the pandemic) to 3,41,62,765.