Delhi, third among the ten states with the highest number of active Covid-19 cases in the country, did not take effective measures despite being aware of the expected increase in cases in November with the confluence of winter, the festival season and an increase on pollution, the Center told the Supreme Court on Friday.
In an affidavit detailing the circumstances that led the Union Interior Minister to personally oversee the preparation of Delhi due to the escalating Covid-19 cases in November, the Home Office (MHA) said: “The Government of the Territory of the National Capital of Delhi (GNCTD) was aware that the confluence of winter, festival season and pollution would likely witness an increase in cases. This prior knowledge should have led to strict compliance and IEC measures being put in place on time. However, this was not done. “
It was on November 15 when the Union Interior Minister Amit Shah stepped in and held a joint meeting of officials in the capital and reorganized efforts to increase medical infrastructure by adding ICU beds, increasing the testing facilities, contact tracing, surveillance. and availability of medical workers.
Pointing out the alleged shortcomings in the actions taken by the Delhi government noted by the Interior Ministry during several rounds of meetings held in recent months, the affidavit revealed that the Arvind Kejriwal government was informed in advance by a group of experts headed By VK Paul, NITI Aayog member that Delhi should anticipate an increase of around 15,000 cases per day in November and consequently should provide around 6,500 ICU beds.
“Contrary to this recommendation, the GNCTD did not take any timely action to increase ICU beds from the current level of around 3,500, causing sudden pressure on the health and medical infrastructure in Delhi,” the affidavit stated. filed by the MHA Deputy Secretary. Sandeep Kumar Jindal.
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The affidavit also blamed the Delhi administration for failing to take steps to improve the testing capacity, particularly for RT-PCR, which remained static at around 20,000 RT-PCR tests for a long time. Patients who were in home isolation were not adequately tracked. Furthermore, “house-to-house surveillance, contact tracing, quarantine, and clinical management were also not performed properly, leading to the spread of infection,” the affidavit added.
According to figures provided by the MHA, with 9.2 million Covid-19 cases, of which 0.44 million are active, India is “very good” at restricting the spread.
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“The recovery rate has risen to 93.7%. The average number of cases per day has dropped by 50% since the last eight weeks. Our fatality rate remains low at 1.46% compared to the world average of 2.36% … We will continue to make efforts to reduce the fatality rate to less than 1 percent and accelerate our efforts to reduce the fatality rate. positivity which stands at 6.9% ”, the affidavit.
This was due in large part to 10 states that made up 77% of the country’s number of active cases. Delhi’s active case load is 8.5% of the national count. Maharashtra leads with about 19%, Kerala 14.7%, followed by Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
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