In a letter issued to the states and the Union Territories today, on January 10, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan mentioned that the rate of hospitalisation amongst patients infected with the Omicron variant of COVID19 ranges between five to 10 per cent.

However, the bureaucrat underlined that the pandemic situation is ‘dynamic’ and may change rapidly.

Bhushan, while drawing a comparison of the ongoing third wave with the second wave of COVID19 in India, higlighted that the rate of hospitalisation in the outbreak caused by the Delta variant was 20 per cent t 23 per cent.

Today, the country recorded 1,79,723 fresh COVID19 cases, increasing the active caseload to 723,619. The daily positivity rate stood at 13.29 per cent, while 146 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours. The Omicron tally, meanwhile, stood at 4,033, with Maharashtra (1,216) registering the maximum cases.

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Meanwhile, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president JP Nadda, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tested positive for COVID19 today.

Restaurants, bars in Delhi to remain shut from tomorrow, only home delivery allowed

Restaurants and bars in Delhi will be shut from tomorrow onward. Only ‘take away’ and home delivery to be allowed.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has decided not to impose lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus and contemplated upon further restrictions such as closing dine-in facility in restaurants and scaling down seating capacity in Metro trains and buses, officials were quoted.

Also Read: Omicron is not common cold, dangerous to suggest it is ‘just a mild’ disease: WHO

An Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur) professor and mathematician, Manindra Agrawal, has predicted that in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, the sharp rise in cases could slow down soon, perhaps by the middle of this month.

He also stated that the peak of the ongoing third wave in the country could go as high as 8 lakh cases in a day — almost twice the peak of the second wave. “The third wave (for the country) is expected to peak somewhere in the beginning of next month or even slightly earlier…By middle of March, the third wave of the pandemic should be more or less over in India,” Agrawal was quoted.

Also Read: Amid rising Omicron cases, India’s unemployment rate four-month high