The national capital on Tuesday registered a massive spike in daily Covid -19 with 496 fresh cases, the highest since June 4, while the positivity rate also rose to 0.89 per cent along with one fatality due to coronavirus in the city.
Mumbai's big surge came after a marginal drop in numbers. On Monday, the city recorded 809 new cases - 113 less than Sunday -- and three deaths, reports ndtv.com.
The total number of cases of the new omicron variant recorded in Delhi has also mounted to 165.There were 67 Omicron cases in the national capital on Friday.
According to the health department, 120 travellers who tested positive on their arrival at the IGI Airport have been admitted to hospitals in the last 24 hours. Their samples would be sent for genome sequencing.
The 50 per cent jump in daily Covid -19 cases in Delhi was reported hours after a ''Yellow alert'' was implemented in the national capital under which schools, colleges, cinemas and gyms will remain closed, shops dealing in non-essential items will open on odd-even basis, and metro trains will run with 50 per cent of seating capacity.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority also extended the timing of the night curfew, imposed from Monday night, by an hour and it will now begin at 10 pm and will remain till 5 am.
The spike rate has been very high in Mumbai, with cases registering a 188 per cent high in three weeks starting December 8. Maharashtra, recorded 2,172 new Covid cases and 22 deaths and the fatality rate in the state is 2.12 per cent. No case of Omicron was recorded today. Till December 27, a total of 167 cases of the Omicron were detected in the state, added ndtv.com.
In view of a rise in omicron cases, the authorities in Delhi had begun genome sequencing of samples of daily COVID-19 cases on December 22 to ascertain if the new variant has spread in the community.
According to officials at Batra Hospital, five omicron patients are admitted there, and another seven patients are COVID positive, but their genome sequencing reports were still awaited. Seven others have been discharged after testing negative for Omicron variant, they said and added that every patient is asymptomatic and all had a travel history.
The latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department, however, did not specify the variants detected.
Tuesday''s figures are the highest since June 4 when Delhi recorded 523 fresh COVID-19 cases and 50 fatalities, while the positivity rate stood at 0.68 per cent, official figures stated.
The positivity rate of 0.89 per cent is the highest since May 31, when it stood at 0.99 per cent.
Delhi on Monday had recorded 331 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day rise since June 9, and one death while the positivity rate mounted to 0.68 per cent, according to the data.
On Sunday, Delhi logged 290 cases with a positivity rate of 0.55 per cent and one fatality, according to official figures. On Saturday and on Friday, the daily case counts were 249 and 180 respectively.
In accordance with ''Level-1'' alert under the graded response action plan (GRAP), private offices will function with physical attendance of 50 per cent of the staff, barring essential categories.
Marriages and funerals will be allowed attendance of 20 people while all other types of gathering related to social, political, cultural, religious and festival events will be prohibited under the ''yellow alert'' that came into force with immediate effect.
Shops of non-essential goods and services in markets and malls can open based on odd-even formula from 10 AM to 8 PM. Restaurants will be permitted with 50 percent of capacity from 8 am to 10 pm while bars can also operate with the same capacity, but from 12 noon to 10 pm.
Seven COVID-19 deaths were reported in November in Delhi this year, according to the official data.
According to the bulletin, a total of 55, 865 tests were conducted a day ago, including 48801 RTPCR/CBNAAT/True Nat tests while the rest were rapid antigen tests.
The number of active cases mounted to 1612 from 1,289 on Monday, according to the bulletin.
The bulletin said that 34 patients are in ICU.It stated that apart from those in ICU, all other patients in hospitals are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.
The number of people under home isolation stood at 692 on Monday while it rose to 836 on Tuesday, and the number of containment zones in the city stood at 397, a significant jump from 310 on Monday, the bulletin said.
With inputs from PTI