New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday said that the national capital is estimated to report nearly 20,000 fresh COVID-19 cases today with the rise in positivity rate by 1 to 2 per cent from Friday.

Delhi on Friday logged 17,335 fresh cases with the positivity rate in the national capital on Friday being recorded at 17.73 per cent.

Addressing a press conference here, Jain said, “In comparison with the second wave, at this number of active cases, there was at least 6 times more number of hospitalizations then. There are fewer admissions and less severity. The data is being compiled. Delhi will report around 20,000 fresh cases today, positivity rate to rise by 1-2 per cent.”

Delhi will report around 20,000 fresh cases today, positivity rate to rise by 1-2%. Currently, only 10% of hospital beds are occupied in the city: Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on COVID19 situation pic.twitter.com/oIAW0PtVyl

— ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2022

“When there were 17,000 cases reported during the second wave, there were 2500 admissions, today there are nearly 200 to 300. So, the admissions this time are very less,” he added.

The Minister further said that there has not been any Omicron variant of COVID-19 detected death in the city so far.

“No patient detected with Omicron variant has died in Delhi so far,” he told media. The Health Minister further informed that there are a total of 13,300 beds for the COVID-19 patients out of which 1,390 beds are occupied now.

“Almost 10 per cent of the available beds are occupied till now, 90 per cent are still available,” he said.

Asked about the healthcare workers also getting infected in the ongoing corona wave in the country, he said that most of them are in home isolation.

“When the disease is spreading, they may be getting infected as well. Most of them are in home isolation. It cannot be called an alarming situation. If we see our bulletin, healthcare workers are more than two lakh,” Jain said.

Asked about the 5,000 health assistants being prepared by the Delhi government, he said, “They are ready, wherever they are needed, they will be used. Their training is over.”

Meanwhile, India reported 1,41,986 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the daily positivity rate in the country to 9.28 per cent, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

With this, the country’s COVID-19 case tally has gone up to 3,53,68,372.

According to Health Ministry, the country has so far reported 3,071 cases of Omicron of which 1,203 have been recovered.

Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of Omicron cases (876), followed by Delhi (513) and Karnataka (333).