The daily health bulletin issued by the Delhi Chief Minister’s Office informed today, on January 3, that the national capital reported 4,099 cases of COVID19 in the last 24 hours. Also, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain informed in the assembly that 81 per cent of the the cases found to be positive on December 30-December 31 are infected with the fast spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

A death due to COVID19 has also been reported in the national capital in the last 24 hours as well. The positivity rate has increased to 6.46 per cent from 4.59 per cent a day ago.

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“As per genome sequencing reports of December 30-31 from three labs – at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Lok Nayak Hospital and National Centre for Disease Control – 81 per cent samples were infected with Omicron. Most of the cases are of Omicron,” Jain was quoted.

Meanwhile, nationwide 33,750 fresh COVID19 cases and 123 deaths were recorded. With 10,846 recoveries, the country’s active caseload stands at 145,582.

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Mumbai is far ahead of Delhi in terms of adding daily cases to its tally. The Maharashtra capital added 7,928 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, pushing the test positivity rate of 16.39 per cent. The city also recorded two related deaths in the past 24 hours, a BMC health bulletin said.

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Less severe infection but too early to tell

Initial estimates show that the severity of the infection caused by the COVID19’s Omicron variant is less than the Delta strain. But researchers warn that it is too early to rely on the initial data available on the severity of the disease.

Suggesting that less severity doesn’t mean that the Omicron variant is to be taken lightly as it is highly contagious, a Nature article quoted Mark Woolhouse, a professor of epidemiology at UK’s University of Edinburgh.

A small fraction of a very large number is still a large number,” Woolhouse was quoted. “So the population-level threat is very real,” he added.

“A rapidly spreading variant could dangerously strain health-care systems, even if the risk of severe disease or death is relatively low for any individual,” the article mentioned.