The coronavirus situation in Delhi is “a cause for concern but not for panic,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said here on Friday.
Though the cumulative tally of 74,000 coronavirus cases so far in the city was “a lot”, he said this was also because of increased testing.
“The number of 74,000 coronavirus cases is a lot, but if we try and understand the situation, I will say the situation is under control. It is a cause for concern but not for panic,” Mr. Kejriwal said during a digital briefing.
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“We have increased testing by three times compared to earlier; so it is obvious that the number of positive cases will also increase. The good thing is that as many as 45,000 have recovered; people are getting cured very quickly too,” he said.
According to Mr. Kejriwal, of the total 26,000 active cases currently, only 6,000 were in hospitals and the rest were getting treated at home.
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He said that over the last week, the total number of occupied beds at city hospitals had been around 6,000 despite 3,000 to 3,500 new patients surfacing every day which showed that there was less need of hospitalisation of COVID-19 patients in the city.
“A mild form the coronavirus seems to be in Delhi; that is why the number of people getting infected is around the same number of those getting cured. In either case, have 13,500 hospital beds ready in Delhi,” he said.
“In early June, there was some shortage of hospital beds in Delhi but not any more. Over the coming days, we will attach banquet halls to hospitals in different parts of Delhi. We are preparing for the future,” he also said.
The Delhi government, Mr. Kejriwal said, had also got the go-ahead to administer plasma therapy on 200 more patients at government-run hospitals in the city.
Results so far, he said, had shown that plasma therapy can help alleviate the condition of COVID-19 patients from getting worse.
“We will be administering plasma therapy to patients at two government hospitals: many private hospitals are also doing so. We hope that in the near future we will be able to reduce the number of deaths through it,” he said.
“In the meantime, given how important oxygen levels are in this condition, Oximeters have been provided to all COVID patients under home isolation,” he added.