'Fifth wave of COVID-19 has set in Delhi,' Satyendar Jain says city likely to see 10,000 positive cases today

New Delhi [India], January 5 (ANI): Delhi Chief Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said that "the third wave of COVID-19 has set in for India, while the fifth wave has set in for Delhi" informing that the national captial is likely to report 10,000 COVID-19 cases today and is stepping closer to a daily positivity rate of 10 per cent.

"The union territory is likely to report 10,000 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. The daily positivity rate of the national capital might touch 10 per cent," said Delhi Health Minister in a press conference today. 

He further informed that the government has instructed private hospitals to increase the number of reserved beds for COVID patients to 40 per cent from 10 per cent of their capacity, Jain further informed. 

"Delhi Government has instructed private hospitals to increase the number of reserved beds for COVID patients to 40 per cent from 10 per cent of their capacity. Nearly 2 per cent of beds are occupied in the government hospitals," said the Delhi Health Minister. 

On the testing capacity of the union territory, he said, " the tests have been increased to 70, 000 tests per day. Around 90,000 tests might happen today". 

On patients isolated at home, he said, "our teams are regularly visiting the home isolation patients at their homes to ensure that they have an adequate supply of medicines, oximeters and other essential things".

On genome sequencing of the Omicron cases, he said, "genome sequencing is not possible as the number of Omicron cases are rising. Even the ICMR has stated that there is no logic to do genome sequencing now. We are doing simple sequencing. in that, some are Delta and some are Omicron, Daily 300-400 cases of Omicron can come".

He further updated about the health of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who had been tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday and said, "the Chief Minister is fine now and is under isolation".

In the wake of the latest guidelines issued by DDMA, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Wednesday had informed that the metro will be running with a 100 per cent seating capacity and no standing passengers will be allowed till further notice.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 cases in Delhi continued to see a rising trend with 5,481 new infections reported on Tuesday, pushing the positivity rate to 8.37 per cent, the highest in over seven months. (ANI)