Amid a spurt in the coronavirus cases in the national capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday reached out to experts to audit Covid-19 death cases and suggested measures to reduce fatalities in the national Capital. The Chief Minister made the request in the meeting chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday.
This comes against the backdrop of Delhi's three BJP-led municipal corporations alleging inconsistencies in the official death count vis-a-vis the number of deaths projected by funerals at the crematoria and burial grounds here.
Delhi recorded 5, 246 fresh Covid-19 cases on Wednesday and a positivity rate of 8.49 per cent while 99 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 8,720. The number of tests done per million as on Wednesday was over 61778 while the total number of tests stood at over 5976437.
Baijal emphasised to enhance Information Education Communication (IEC) outreach, strict enforcement of COVID-19, appropriate behaviour and continued and coordinated action to contain positivity and mortality
Following the meeting, Baijal tweeted “Reviewed COVID situation and implementation status of decisions taken during the meeting held under the Hon'ble Union Home Minister on 15th Nov2020 with special reference to scaling up testing, augmenting hospital capacities, conduct of house to house survey & review of home care.”
In another tweet, he said “Emphasised enhanced IEC outreach, strict enforcement of COVID appropriate behaviour and continued and coordinated action to contain positivity and mortality.”
The national capital had recorded its highest single-day spike of 8,593 cases on November 11 when 85 fatalities linked to the pandemic were also registered.
According to the bulletin, the total number of cases has climbed to 545787 of which 498780 have recovered. The number of COVID-19 containment zones in Delhi rose to 4980.
The bulletin said that of the total number of 18196 beds in COVID-19 hospitals, 8,928 are vacant. On Monday, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had attributed the high COVID-19 death rate to the pollution caused by stubble-burning and said he expected a downtrend in the next two-three weeks, while the city got a mobile laboratory that will conduct free RT-PCR test for coronavirus.
The sudden spike in cases came amid the festive season and rising pollution level.
The National Centre for Disease Control in a report drafted recently had warned that Delhi needs to be prepared for about 15,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 per day taking into account the upcoming winter season-related respiratory problems, large influx of patients from outside and festive gatherings.
