Delhi likely to report 20,000 fresh COVID-19 cases today: Health Minister Satyendra Jain

New Delhi: Delhi will report around 20,000 fresh cases today along with positivity rate will rise by 1-2%, Health Minister Satyendra Jain said.

Currently, only 10% of hospital beds are occupied in the city, the health minister informed.

Delhi on Friday reported 17,335 fresh cases and 9 deaths while the positivity rate also shot up to 17.73 per cent. The number of active cases in the capital now stands at 39,873. Almost 1 lakh tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.

Delhi had on Thursday had reported 15,097 fresh Covid-19 cases and 6 deaths with a positivity rate of 15.34 per cent.

Meanwhile, Police and administrative officials in Delhi kept vigil to check violations of COVID-related guidelines as weekend curfew kicked in Friday night in the city to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The weekend curfew started at 10 pm Friday and will continue till Monday 5 am. In view of the surge in coronavirus cases due to the Omicron variant, the Delhi government announced the weekend curfew on Tuesday.

The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday said India is seeing an exponential rise in the number of coronavirus cases, which is believed to be driven by the Omicron variant. It also highlighted that the country's R naught value is 2.69, higher than the 1.69 recorded during the peak of the pandemic's second wave.

India saw a single-day rise of 1,41,986 new coronavirus cases, raising the tally to 3,53,68,372, which included 3,071 cases of Omicron variant reported across 27 states and union territories so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.