Omicron Variant Found In 81 Per Cent Of COVID Samples: Delhi Health Minister

New Delhi: “Of the 187 COVID samples sent for genome sequencing, 152 tested positive for the Omicron variant, as per the latest genome sequencing report. This means, 81 per cent of the cases were of Omicron, around 8.5 per cent of the Delta variant and the remaining cases had other variants. Clearly, the Omicron variant is dominant currently”, said Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain in Delhi Assembly on Monday (January 3). Along with the genome sequencing report, Mr Jain informed that no Omicron patient in Delhi has required oxygen as of now.

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Though Delhi is reporting a surge in the COVID-19 cases, the situation is under control as not many people are requiring hospitalisation. Sharing the data from the health bulletin of January 2, 2022, Mr Jain said,

3,194 cases and one death were reported yesterday with a positivity rate of 4.59 per cent. But, only 307 hospital beds are occupied against the availability of 9,024 beds.

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As per the latest health bulletin of January 2, over 8,300 COVID cases are active in Delhi with 307 patients in hospital. As per Mr Jain, last year, during the Delta wave, around 1,500 COVID positive patients were hospitalised when Delhi reported an equal number of active cases.

The health bulletin for today will be released shortly; around 4,000 cases with the positivity rate of over 6 per cent have been reported, said Mr Jain.

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Highlighting the experience of fighting COVID-19 for almost two years now, the Health Minister stressed on wearing a face mask at all times when in the public sphere. He added,

Panicking won’t help. Because of panic, patients who don’t require hospitalisation also tend to visit a hospital and get admitted. We need to be careful.

While replying to a question in Delhi Assembly, Mr Jain informed that there was no shortage of medical staff in state-run hospitals and clinics at a time when the national capital is seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases in the last few days.

At a national level, India’s Omicron tally has reached 1,700 cases with Maharashtra and Delhi topping the charts. While Maharashtra has reported 510 cases of Omicron, Delhi has 351.

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NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity,  that is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.