Delhi and Mumbai recorded a sharp rise in Omicron and Covid-19 numbers on Wednesday. Mumbai saw the daily Covid numbers jump to 2,510 from 1,352 infections in the 24 hours since Tuesday. One death was reported This is the biggest one-day rise in the city in the last seven months, contributing to the majority of Maharashtra's cases.

Delhi’s Omicron count was at 238 and the cumulative Covid-19 infections were at 923 with no fatality. In the last two weeks, the Covid positivity rate been been rising in the capital and jumped to 1.29 per cent on Wednesday.

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that about 51,000 tests are being conducted in Mumbai daily out of which reports of about 2,200 are turning positive.

“This 4 per cent positivity rate is not good (sign). It is cause for concern,” he said. Tope said that the Delhi government has imposed more restrictions and if people in Maharashtra fail to follow Covid-19 norms and appropriate behaviour the number of active patients will rise.

Low hospitalisation

Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray held a meeting with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials. Speaking to reporters later, Thackeray said that though the rate of hospitalisation in Mumbai is low, the number of cases is rising. “There are 54,000 beds available in Mumbai,” he said. He said that New Year celebrations will not be allowed in public places in Mumbai and strict action will be taken against anyone flouting Covid-19 restrictions imposed by the State. “This could be the beginning of the third wave. Last week, there were 150 cases ( in Mumbai) and now we have 2,500. There is no need to panic be all precautions must be taken” he said.

Omicron count at 823

The Omicron tally surged to 823 in the country. Delhi had the highest 238 cases, followed by Maharashtra at 167 and Gujarat (97).

The cumulative Covid count countrywide was 9,195 cases with 302 deaths in the last 24 hours till 8 am on ednesday, per the Health Ministry data. The number of cases the previous day was 6,358. India’s daily positivity rate stood at 0.79 per cent, under 2 per cent for the last 86 days and the weekly positivity rate, at 0.68 per cent, was under 1 per cent for the last 45 days.

India conducted 11.67 lakh tests during the previous day taking to a total to 67.52 crore tests done so far. As amny as 64.61 lakh vaccine doses were administered on Wednesday aggregating to 143.15 crore inoculations so far. Also, according to the Health Ministry, more than 16.67 crore vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs.