Delhi: International passengers testing Covid-19 positive to be isolated at institutional facilities

New Delhi, Dec 31: In the wake of rising Covid-19 cases in the national capital, the Delhi government has issued an order stating that International passengers testing positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport have to isolate at institutional designated paid and free facilities.

The passengers, who test positive for COVID-19 after RT-PCR tests, and their contacts will be shifted to designated paid or free COVID care centres set up in various districts.

For paid facilities, the government will designate various hotels in every district whereas free isolation facilities will be available at designated COVID care centres.

Delhi on Thursday recorded 1,313 fresh Covid cases, the highest single-day spike since May 26, as the positivity rate mounted to 1.73 per cent, with Health Minister Satyendar Jain cautioning that the new coronavirus variant Omicron is gradually spreading in the community.

The daily case count breached the 1,000-mark after a gap of seven months. On May 28, the city had logged 1,141 cases. On Wednesday, 923 cases were recorded with a positivity rate of 1.29 per cent, as per officials figures. The positivity rate had breached the one per cent-mark after a gap of seven months.

India saw a major surge in Covid-19 cases on Thursday as the country reported 16,764 new cases in the last 24 hours, Union Health Ministry data said. The country registered 220 deaths with 7,585 patients recuperating from the infection to take the total number of recoveries in the country to 3,42,66,363.

Kerala (2,423), Maharashtra (5,368), and West Bengal (1,090) are the other states where 1000+ cases were reported on Thursday.