Delhi Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday expressed hope that based on the positive signs of the past four to five days, the national capital was crossing the third peak of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), with the positivity rate of the tests and the number. of infections steadily decreasing during this period.
Cases in Delhi have risen in their third and deadliest wave so far, with the positivity rate (the number of infected as a percentage of those tested) rising to 15%. The Delhi government recently sought tougher restrictions on weddings in the city and asked the Union government for approval to block markets if they were becoming hot spots.
“Looks like there are some good signs in the last 4-5 days. On November 15, the positivity rate was 15%. On November 17, this dropped to 13%. Today it is 10.5%. In the last five days, the positivity rate dropped by 5 percentage points … It seems that the cases are decreasing. We keep our fingers crossed. I hope that if this trend continues, maybe we, the people of Delhi and the central government and all the organizations, I think we are crossing the third peak, ”Kejriwal said at the 18th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
Also read: HTLS 2020: A VIP category should not be created for the Covid-19 vaccine, says Kejriwal
Delhi’s chief minister said that even after 8,593 daily cases recently, the capital’s health care infrastructure did not collapse under rising infections, something that was noted in several metropolises around the world, including New York City. “There are a total of 7,500 empty beds and 450 ICU beds are empty at the moment,” he said, praising the efforts of health workers. “We will add between 1,000 and 1,500 ICU beds in the next 1-2 days,” he added.
Referring to the intensity of the third wave, the Delhi CM said experts indicated that the disease pattern worsened due to increased air pollution. He said the fundamentals of the “Delhi model” that his government devised to combat the pandemic some time ago – testing, home isolation, public data, hospital beds and plasma therapy – remained strong even today, and the current situation does not hold. turned off. control due to the robustness of this strategy.
On Friday, the national capital registered 6,608 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the infection count to 517,238, while 118 deaths in one day brought the death toll to 8,159.
Kejriwal also said his government was in the process of creating a health information management system that will integrate and track hospitals and other similar facilities throughout the capital. “All the Delhi government hospitals, mohalla clinics, polyethylene clinics … they will all be connected to each other. With the click of a button, you will know in the cloud … everything that is available in which hospital. All citizens will receive electronic cards and their medical records will be available in the cloud … I hope we can implement it in a year ”.
The CM added that the system will start only with Delhi government hospitals, but the plan is to expand it. “It is a modular structure in which additional elements can be plugged in later. In a year, we will try to get the government hospitals in Delhi to take care of this. I would like to see private and central government hospitals be incorporated later. All of Delhi’s health infrastructure should finally be on this platform, but in Phase 1, it will be just the Delhi government infrastructure. “
He said that, according to the system, when a patient visits a health facility for the first time, their history is fed. Details will continue to be updated with each visit. The CM added that the system, planned for two years, was urgently targeted due to the pandemic and that the bidding process had been completed.
Read also | HTLS 2020: ‘Congress has collapsed as a national party’: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal
The Delhi CM said that when the pandemic started earlier this year, several factors were outside of Delhi’s control, leading to the increase in Covid-19 cases. “We learned about the coronavirus in February and March … The Indians wanted to return from countries devastated by the disease at that time. On March 22, some 32,000 people returned and spread across Delhi. We asked developing countries to identify and isolate them, but it was not practically possible. Delhi did not start from scratch, we started with several thousand. “
When asked which aspect of the disease was the most difficult to address, he said the “rate of spread of infection.” “It spreads very fast. If you are not alert 24 hours a day, then your structure collapses. “
He said the Delhi government’s decision to begin home isolation for mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic cases was a game changer. “If all the patients come to the hospitals, then we can’t manage. Without home isolation, there would have been no beds for critically ill patients, ”he said.
Kejriwal also said the decision to implement a national shutdown in March was a good move, as it gave governments time to build infrastructure and purchase equipment. On the question of whether a blockade in the capital could return, he said: “A blockade does not end with the crown; delays infections. The day the shutdown ends, cases will increase. ”He added that governments should take drastic action only when facilities are overrun with infections, stressing that it was essential to maintain economic activity even while fighting the pandemic.
See also: Covid Comparison: Delhi vs New York by CM Kejriwal in the middle of the third wave # HTLS2020
He defended Delhi’s Covid-19 testing record, saying the government responded quickly to the worsening situation. “August 16, when cases began to increase [in the second wave], in a week we increase the number of tests. Even now, as the cases started to grow, we started to run more tests. “
Kejriwal said that the accuracy of the rapid antigen tests was questionable, but the RT-PCR tests took much longer to return results. “Ideally, all tests should be RT-PCR,” he said. But the CM said the response time on these tests was two days on average.
The Center recently announced that it will double the testing capacity in Delhi to 100,000-120,000 with a focus on increasing RT-PCR testing, implementing mobile test laboratories, and increasing ICU beds.
Kejriwal also said that the whole world was desperately waiting for a vaccine. “For the delivery of vaccines in India, the central government will carry out the entire distribution plan. But if you ask us for suggestions, there should be no ‘VIP and non-VIP’ culture … “
.
