COVID: Delhi monuments closed till January 20 amid Omicron threat & surge in cases

Mounting worries of the officials in Delhi, the COVID curve in the national capital has observed a massive rise amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. Keeping the COVID situation in view, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had suspended visit for the public, to the centrally protected monuments in Delhi.

In a notification on Thursday, ASI informed that all the centrally-monitored monuments in NCR will remain shut from January 6 to January 20 due to the sudden explosion of COVID cases. 

Delhi observes an uptick in daily COVID figures

Despite the imposition of stringent restrictions, the COVID-19 case tally in Delhi is witnessing an unabated surge as the capital recorded a massive jump in the daily COVID infection figures on Thursday. Delhi recorded 15,097 fresh COVID cases on Thursday, the highest single-day rise since May 8, and six deaths, while the positivity rate mounted to 15.34 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

This comes a day after the national capital had registered 10,665 cases with a positivity rate of 11.88 per cent and eight deaths.  As per the official data, 65 per cent of COVID samples sent for genome sequencing in Delhi between January 1 and 3 were detected infected with the Omicron variant, compared to 28 per cent from December 1 to 31.

56,000 youngsters vaccinated in Delhi in 24 hours

Besides, in a positive development, nearly 56,000 youngsters in Delhi in the 15-18 age bracket had received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose on Thursday. A total of 55,979 children in the age group of 15-17 were vaccinated across Delhi on January 6 at 5.30 pm. The vaccination drive began on Monday, January 3 at 169 locations across the nation's capital and within three days, a large number of kids have got inoculated.

Exponential Surge in COVID cases across India

India, in the last 24 hours reported 90,928 new cases of the Coronavirus. The active caseload in the country is currently at 2,85,401. A total of 19,206 recoveries have been reported in the last 24 hours, which has increased the total figure of recoveries to 3,43,41,009. Meanwhile, the Omicron tally rose to 2,630 in the latest update as per the Health Ministry.

(With PTI Inputs)

Image: PTI