Indian capital sees sharp rise in daily COVID-19 cases

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - As India continues to record a growing rise in COVID-19 cases, the capital New Delhi saw the biggest daily jump of the current third wave of the pandemic on Wednesday.

According to the official data released by the government, New Delhi saw 27,561 fresh infections in the last 24 hours.

Wednesday’s cases in the capital are the second-highest daily spike since April last year, when the country saw a devastating second wave, with many hospitals having faced oxygen shortages.

As New Delhi is now facing a third wave of COVID-19, a large number of medical staff, police personnel, and even political leaders have tested positive in the fresh wave, which is believed to be driven by the omicron variant.

Local news broadcaster NDTV on Wednesday reported that 42 staff members at the headquarters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi tested positive and many of those infected were sanitation workers.

Along with New Delhi, the western Maharashtra state has been recording a massive increase in daily cases, with over 46,700 new infections reported on Wednesday evening.

India registered 194,720 new coronavirus cases over the past day, pushing the total count to over 36 million. The nationwide death toll now stands at 484,655, including 442 fresh fatalities, according to the latest official figures.

The case positivity rate in the country has shot up from 1.1% at the end of December to 11.05 % on Jan. 12, according to the Health Ministry.

In 28 Indian states, 4,868 omicron cases have been reported so far.

With the 15-18 age group included in the vaccination campaign recently, some 1.53 billion doses of vaccines have been administered across the country thus far.