Delhi is rapidly recording Covid cases, with the omicron variant being the primary cause of the increase, informed Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain on Wednesday adding that this is the “fifth wave to hit Delhi, and the third for the entire country”.

The Health Minister stated, “People coming from abroad are the ones who are most affected by the omicron variant. Until now, no patient is in critical need of oxygen, and the majority of patients have mild symptoms.”

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He went on to say, “The Delhi government is keeping a close eye on the situation. For the time being, the situation in Delhi is under control. In Delhi’s hospitals, there are plenty of beds available. For example, GTB hospital has 650 beds set aside for covid patients, of which only 20 are occupied.”

The occupancy rate is only 2 to 5%, informed Jain adding that in Delhi, 531 coronavirus-infected patients have been admitted to hospitals.

When the cases were equal in number, there was a 15% occupancy rate of beds in the previous wave of Corona, which is around 3% in the current situation.

“The Delhi government is constantly disseminating information about home isolation. Out of the 418 beds made available to patients yesterday, 308 were not in need of any additional medical assistance, indicating mild symptoms.,” he said.

He went on to say that there was no need for all patients’ genomes to be sequenced; it was just a research process to see if Omicron was spreading in society or not.

Because the majority of the patients are Omicron positive, there is no need to perform genome sequencing on all of them. However, random samples’ genomes are still being sequenced.

The Delhi government has decided to install telemetry devices in all oxygen tanks for real-time monitoring and to streamline medical oxygen supply to Delhi hospitals.

This will aid in the provision of oxygen before times of disaster. Live monitoring will be performed from the Covid War Room to ensure that oxygen is delivered on time.

“There will be no lockdown in Delhi for the time being; construction work will continue as usual; there is no need for workers to panic; some restrictions have been imposed in the interest of public health. Delhi has taken the most stringent steps in the country to stop Corona, such as weekend curfew, shutting down colleges and schools,” added Jain.