Delhi records over 25K new Covid cases, 161 deaths in a day
In the wake of rising coronavirus cases in the national Capital with the city logging over 25,000 new Covid-19 cases, 161 deaths in a day, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and appealed to the Centre to reserve at least 7,000 beds for Covid patients.
The Central Government hospitals have around 10,000 beds in Delhi out of which 1,800 are Covid beds.
He said he spoke to Home Minister Amit Shah earlier in the day and informed him of the dire need of beds and oxygen in Delhi. Kejriwal said he had also informed Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan of the same on Saturday.
The CM said apart from the Commonwealth Games Complex, Yamuna Sports Complex, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, beds are being set up in some Delhi schools. He added that within 2-3 days, the Delhi government will set up more than 6,000 oxygen beds and will arrange more high flow oxygen beds in the city.
Kejriwal said, “In the last 24 hours, approximately 25,500 cases of COVID have come up. Before that, we had around 24,000 cases and before that we had 19,500 cases. Currently, the cases are increasing rapidly. Another concern is that in the last 24 hours, the positivity rate has increased to 30 per cent. This is despite the fact that it was around 24 per cent the day before.”
“We have noted that the number of available beds reserved for COVID is reducing at a fast rate in the city. A large number of patients are being admitted to hospitals and we are falling short of ICU beds. In Delhi, we are now left with less than 100 ICU beds. We are falling short of oxygen as well. Last night, a private hospital told us that the shortage was so severe that they just about managed to prevent a tragedy. We have been in touch with the Centre, and have asked for aid, which we are getting; and for that, we’d like to thank them,” he said.
“The Delhi government will be able to create more than 6,000 oxygen beds in the next 2-3 days. There is a limit under which we can increase the number of ICU beds. It has been noted that maximum patients require high flow oxygen. Hence, we are trying to provide high flow oxygen in hospitals so that more such beds can be set up,” he said.
The Chief Minister expressed his gratitude to the Centre for the 500 ICU beds set up by DRDO and stated that if this number were to increase to 1,000.