Omicron coronavirus variant has become dominant in several Indian cities, data shows that metropolitan centres of Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru have seen a decline in new Covid-19 cases.
In Delhi, the positivity rate on Saturday evening stood at 16.36%, down from 18.04% the day before. Similarly, the positivity rate dipped to 7% on Saturday in Mumbai from 10% seen on Friday.
There was a dip in Covid-19 infections in Bengaluru Urban to 17,266 on Saturday from 29,068 on Friday. This comes as a preliminary analysis by IIT Madras has shown that India's R-value which indicates the rate of spread of coronavirus has further reduced to 1.57 in the week from 14-21 January and the national peak of the third wave of the infection is expected to come in the next fortnight.
R-value indicates the number of people an infected person can spread the disease to. A pandemic is considered to end if this value goes below 1.