Delhi records 965 COVID cases in 24 hrs, booster dose made free at govt hospitals

Delhi on Thursday reported 965 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, according to Health Department Bulletin, marginally less than yesterday when the national capital had recorded over 1,000 daily infections.

Moreover, Delhi reported one COVID-19 related death while 635 people recovered from the infection over the past 24 hours.

The number of active cases has jumped to 2,970. The positivity rate now stands at 4.71 per cent down from 5.70 per cent a day ago. Testing in the national capital increased from around 17,000 tests yesterday to nearly 20,480 tests today.

Meanwhile, in view of rising COVID-19 cases in Delhi, the government has made the precaution dose of the COVID-19 vaccine free for all beneficiaries in the18 to 59 years age group at government hospitals.

On Wednesday, Delhi logged 1,009 fresh Covid cases, a 60 per cent jump from a day ago .The positivity rate in Delhi has been registered in excess of one per cent since April 4 when it had stood at 1.34 per cent. As the Covid positivity rate in the national capital has jumped from 0.57 per cent on April 1 to 5.70 per cent on April 20.

In an attempt to mitigate the rise, the Delhi government has made wearing of masks mandatory in public places and imposed a fine of Rs 500 on violators.

Officials said the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, in its meeting, also decided not to shut schools, but chose to come up with a separate Standard Operating Procedure in consultation with experts.

After witnessing a spike in COVID-19 cases for the past few weeks, Delhi had started genome sequencing of samples of all Covid infected people in the capital to ascertain if a new variant, such as the XE variant, has spread in the city.

Government sources earlier today had stated that COVID-19 variant Omicron and its subtypes are driving the surge in Delhi. Samples that underwent genome sequencing have shown the presence of BA.2.12.1 and 8 other subtypes of Omicron variant of the coronavirus, they added.

(With PTI inputs)

Also read: Delhi reports over 1,000 COVID-19 cases in 24 hrs, positivity rate at 5.70%