Delhi: 438 ‘Covid deaths’ in last 2 weeks, 70% admitted for other illnesses

Data also shows that deaths with Covid as the primary cause have increased in the past few days. There were 10 fatalities because of Covid on January 25.

Data also reveals that the omicron variant has taken over delta in Delhi in January. About 79% of the total samples sent for genome sequencing have detected the latest strain.

As per data, omicron samples increased sharply in January as compared to December. From January 1 to 23, of 2,503 samples analysed in labs, 1,978 (79%) had the omicron variant, 343 had delta (13.70 %), and remaining 7.27% had other strains of the virus.

Between December 25 and 31, a total of 853 samples were analysed and 50% of the samples were omicron, 34% were of delta strain and 16% were others.

Recently, a study by INSACOG also showed that omicron has reached the community transmission stage and has become the dominant variant in India.

“Omicron is already in community transmission, but now I think it is on the descending verge of the current wave. This is based on the number of infections, which may or may not be the correct picture because they have reduced tests and are only testing a specific group who have symptoms. But the number of hospitalisations is not increasing, which means cases are gradually going down,” said Dr Lalit Kant, Senior Advisor to Ashoka University and former head of epidemiology and communicable diseases, ICMR.

Cases dip below 5k

Covid cases in the capital dropped below the 5,000-mark Thursday, after 24 days since January 4 when 4,099 cases were reported. Delhi reported 4,291 cases Thursday. Even with fewer tests conducted on Republic Day, as reported a day later in Thursday’s bulletin, the positivity rate stood at 9.56% with just 44,903 tests conducted. The capital also recorded 34 deaths, taking January’s total toll to 637, which is the highest since the 740 deaths reported in June  when the delta-driven wave was waning.