Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said that the national Capital has now overcome the third wave of Covid-19 infections as the city reported 1,133 fresh cases at a positivity rate of less than 1.5 per cent.
The highest number of daily coronavirus tests is being conducted in the country, which is even more than the US, Kejriwal said, adding when New York reached its peak the patients were lying on the streets and corridors of hospitals, almost 7,000 beds were lying vacant when the highest number of corona cases was reported in a day in Delhi.
Addressing an online briefing, he said that there are 1133 cases in Delhi. “The positivity rate in Delhi was 15 per cent in November and it is just 1.3 per cent,” he said.
The chief minister said that in November the number of active cases touched 45,000 and today Delhi has just 12,000 active cases. He further said “Delhi gave various new techniques to the world like home isolation and plasma therapy to fight against the pandemic.”
“Delhi is conducting 4,500 tests per 10 lakh population in a day. The number of tests per 10 lakh populations is 670 in Uttar Pradesh, 800 in Gujarat, 4300 in US and 4800 in UK. Today Delhi has a recovery rate of 96.5 percent,” he said.
Kejriwal said, “On 19th November, Delhi has the highest number of deaths due to Covid and the number was 131 and today the number of deaths is 37. This number will also go down and we are working on it. We gave prime importance to the testing to detect Covid-19 patients and I am proud of the doctors, nurses, officials and other Covid Warriors because they worked round the clock and ensure the testing.”
Elaborating it further, he said, “When the third wave of Covid pandemic hit Delhi then we increased the number of tests per day from 60,000 to 90,000. We were conducting tests and isolating Covid positive patients. Today Delhi is conducting around 90,000 tests per day. This number is highest across India and also across the globe. Today Delhi is conducting 4,500 tests per 10 lakh population in a day.”
The number of tests per 10 lakh population is 670 in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat 800, US 4300 and in UK 4,800, he added.