Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said all new positive cases of coronavirus being reported in the city will be sent for genome sequencing even as he appealed to the Centre to allow booster dose for health workers and others.
After his meeting with Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Kejriwal said there is no need to panic in view of the Omicron variant. “For the last few days Covid-19 cases have been increasing in the city. Yesterday (Sunday), it was over 100. We do not know what type of Covid cases are these, normal or the Omicron variant. So, to ascertain this we have now decided to send the samples of all the positive cases for genome sequencing,” he added.
A meeting of the DDMA was held under the chairmanship of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to discuss the Covid situation in respect of the Omicron variant. “We assessed the impact and problems posed by the variant with experts. The experts have informed us that the Omicron variant spreads rapidly but is very mild in nature. One might get fever and other mild symptoms, the need for hospitalisation is very low overall and the chances of death are very low as well.”
“After discussion with experts we have come to the conclusion that this time home isolation would be needed at large. We have thus decided to further enhance and bolster our home isolation program. Apart from this we have decided to get genome sequencing of each positive Covid test done to determine what variant is spreading among the patients at present. The number of positive cases kept coming on the lower side but yesterday we saw over 100 positive tests till now only the people coming to the airport were being tested for the variants. This will help everyone know what variants are on the rise if Covid cases are spreading in Delhi,” he added urging people to follow Covid appropriate behaviour.