Fourth wave scare: Delhi records 366 new Covid-19 cases, positivity rate now highest since Feb 3

New Delhi: Delhi on Friday (April 15, 2022) continued to witness a spike in daily Covid-19 infections and recorded 366 fresh cases, according to data shared by the city health department.

With this, the national capital's daily positivity rate has increased to 3.95 per cent, the highest since February 3. Delhi's Covid-19 tally now stands at 18,67,572, while the death toll remained unchanged at 26,158.

A total of 685 Covid-19 patients are currently under home isolation, the health bulletin stated.

There are 9,735 beds for Covid-19 patients in Delhi hospitals and 51 (0.52 per cent) of them are occupied, it said.

It is notable that the daily coronavirus infections and the positivity rate in the national capital have seen an upward trend in the last few days. Delhi on Thursday had recorded 325 cases while the positivity rate stood at 2.39 per cent. On Wednesday, 299 Covid-19 cases were reported with a positivity rate of 2.49 per cent.

The number of daily Covid-19 cases in Delhi had touched the record high of 28,867 on January 13 this year during the third wave of the pandemic. The capital had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the third wave of the pandemic which was largely driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

About 300 Covid-19 positive samples from Delhi sent for genome sequencing

Amid the threat of a new coronavirus variant, nearly 300 samples taken from people who had tested positive for Covid-19 in Delhi recently have been sent for genome sequencing, official sources said on Friday. The sequencing is to be done essentially to find if any new variant, like XE, has circulated in the city or not, amid a spike in daily cases in the last few days.

The sequencing will take about 7-10 days to process, the sources said.

As flights are operational and people are intermingling, there is always a "chance" that a variant could end up circulating in a city, even from a far off place, where they might have been detected earlier, the sources added.

Around 48% rise in home isolation cases of Covid in last one week in Delhi

Amid an uptick in daily cases of Covid-19 in Delhi and the positivity rate going beyond three per cent, there has been a rise of around 48 per cent in the number of home isolation cases here in the last one week, according to official data.

Official sources said that patients of all age groups and both working professionals and students are getting infected and under home isolation. They, however, did not specify as to which age group was particularly getting affected.

The daily cases have been on the rise in the last few days while the positivity rate here has been registered in excess of one per cent since April 4 when it had stood at 1.34 per cent.

More students test positive for Covid-19 in Delhi

The number of school students testing positive rose on Friday raising concerns among parents with the Delhi government telling school authorities to close specific wings or classrooms wherever needed. Schools in Delhi have a four-day holiday in view of Ambedkar Jayanti, Good Friday followed by the weekend.

Two top private schools confirmed that each of them have received information from parents about their wards testing positive.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said a specific wing or classroom where a Covid-19 case has been detected should be closed temporarily and clarified that the entire school should only be closed in specific cases.

At least five students and staff members of a top private school in Vasant Kunj have tested positive in the last week, triggering concerns among parents about the safety of their wards and the possible closure of schools again.

Reports of infections from schools have triggered concerns weeks after they opened for completely offline classes following a two-year gap due to the pandemic.

The fresh infections in the private schools in the national capital have been reported close on the heels of schools in adjoining Noida and Ghaziabad reporting new cases of the disease.

"We haven't asked them to close schools. Our guidelines say that only a specific wing or classroom where someone was found Covid positive should be temporarily closed," Sisodia said.

"Schools can take a decision to close the entire premises in specific cases where an infected child or staff has been through multiple areas of the school. We have made it decentralised," he said.

The Directorate of Education (DoE) issued a fresh advisory for schools in the national capital on April 13, directing them to close the entire premises or specific wings temporarily if any student or staff tests positive for COVID-19.

The department also said students and staff must wear masks and maintain social distancing.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has been called on April 20 to review the situation in the national capital.

(With agency inputs)

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