Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday said that despite the coronavirus cases rising fast every day for the past few days, there was no need for imposing a lockdown at this stage.

The national capital is in a “comfortable position” so far as the availability of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients is concerned.

He told media persons that the number of single-day Covid-19 cases were likely to shoot up to 14,000 today and the positivity rate might go up to 14 per cent, but the situation was under control, he asserted.

Jain said, “Delhi has seen a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in the past few days. Many more cases have come. Today it is going to be nearly 14,000. But Delhi is in a comfortable position in terms of hospital bed occupancy.”

He pointed out, “Currently, the death ratio is one in 1,000. The situation is not worrying compared to that last time. On Wednesday, the city had 9,000 unoccupied beds meant for Covid-19 patients. Today, 12,000 such beds are available. Our preparations are complete. Delhi is now conducting close to 90,000 tests daily.”

The spike in Covid-19 cases has been driven by the Omicron variant, but no Omicron-infected patient has died in the city so far, he claimed.

Jain admitted the third wave of the pandemic had hit the national capital.

Data provided by the Delhi government show that 65 per cent of the samples sent for genome sequencing and whose reports had come between 1 and 3 January, were found to have the Omicron variant.

The Minister said the number of Covid-19 cases was fast going up because a large number of people are being tested daily. The death rate continues to be 1.70 per cent, he added.

He suggested that people who came into contact with an infected person and were asymptomatic should isolate themselves at home.

Jain also appealed to people through a tweet on Wednesday, “Corona patients in home isolation should take care of these things: isolate yourself from other members of the household; stay in a well-ventilated room with cross ventilation; wear a triple-layer mask; take special care of cleanliness; keep yourself busy, talk to family and relatives on phone from time to time.”

His appeal was in response to the Union Health Ministry’s revised guidelines. According to these guidelines, home isolation of Covid-19 patients will end after at least seven days from testing positive and after no fever for three successive days. There is no need for re-testing after the home isolation period is over, the guidelines added.