New Delhi:
Coronavirus cases in Delhi have been decreasing since hitting all-time high of 8,593 cases on November 10, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said at a meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.
PM Modi chaired a virtual meeting with the chief ministers of the eight worst Covid-hit states – Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana – to review the coronavirus situation, discuss the cause for surge and countermeasures planned to stem virus growth.
“Delhi saw a peak of 8,600 cases on November 10 during the third wave. Since then cases and positivity rate have been on a steady decline. We hope this trend continues,” Mr Kejriwal said a day after Delhi recorded 121 deaths with 4,454 fresh infections as one-day testing dropped to about 37,000 samples in the last 24 hours.
The chief minister, however, took cognisance of the “severity” of the third wave which has seen more deaths and hospitalisations since the surge started five weeks ago.
“The high severity of third wave is due to many factors. Pollution is an important factor,” Mr Kejriwal said seeking the Prime Minister’s intervention to get rid of the annual pollution spike caused by stubble, or “parali”, burning in neighbouring states.
Till the third wave lasts, Mr Kejriwal said that an additional 1,000 ICU beds should be reserved for coronavirus patients in central government hospitals.
The Central government has already assured it would ready 750 ICU beds in the DRDO Hospital, which is being manned by doctors from the armed forces.
Amid the third wave of coronavirus infections, Delhi has added more than one lakh cases since November 1. Though the positivity rate has come down from the earlier 14 per cent to about 11 per cent, it is still at least three times higher than the national average of 3.5 per cent.
Delhi has a total of 5.3 lakh coronavirus cases with 8,512 deaths.
