The Covid-19 situation in Delhi is under control, but “we can’t be complacent”, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said. Addressing the people of Delhi, he said, “As per estimates, 2.25 lakh cases were predicted by 15 July in Delhi, but after united efforts, the cases today are half of the prediction. Today we have 1.15 lakh cases. The prediction was of over 1.34 lakh active cases, but only 18,600 are active. We have made arrangements for 15,000 beds. The situation seems to be better but we cannot be complacent and need to constantly be prepared for a surge.”
The Delhi model is being hailed by all and the number of cases is much lower than expected and Delhi has managed to check the spread of Covid-19. Today, only 4,000 beds are occupied in Delhi, whereas it was estimated that by 15 July, 34,000 beds will be required.
Kejriwal said: “On 1 June, there were 4,100 beds in Delhi; today there are 15,500 beds and 2,100 ICU beds, of which 1,100 are vacant because of which today people have the confidence that in case they need to be hospitalised, there will be no shortage. The situation seems to be under control today. We are ready for the future too.”
Kejriwal said that the “Delhi Model”, which was recently praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is based on collective efforts by the AAP government, the Centre, other organisations and all political parties, and thanked the BJP the and Congress for their cooperation. Kejriwal said, the Delhi government worked on three principles after realising that the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be won alone.
The Chief Minister said, “Our first principle was that this fight cannot be won alone. If the Delhi gove r n m e n t h a d thought it would win the fight against coronavirus alone, we would have failed. Our second principle was that we did not criticise our critics for their views about our work. We improved things after somebody flagged it. The third principle was that we did not accept defeat. Had we accepted defeat, there would have been a surge in the numbers of deaths.”
The Kejriwal government considers home isolation as an important step in the fight against coronavirus. The CM, while lauding his government’s home-isolation policy, said due to it, people are coming forward in large numbers to undergo tests. He said: “We started home isolation with a full proof plan and our doctors’ team used to tell us everything that was done in home isolation. The patients were given a pulse oximeter and they were told that if your oxygen gets low, call us. Until the patient with home isolation is cured, he gets a call every day. Implementation of home isolation in Delhi was brilliantly done and it is being discussed everywhere. At first, people were afraid of tests because they thought that if they are positive, then they would be sent to quarantine centres directly.
The same is going on in many states even today. People do not get tested and keep roaming and infecting other people. People are now undergoing tests due to home isolation.”
Plasma therapy has also shown much better effect in reducing deaths from corona in Delhi. Kejriwal said, when the plasma trial was started in the country, it got good results after which the Delhi government started the first plasma bank in the country so that people get plasma on time if needed. The Delhi government has created two plasma banks in its two hospitals, ILBS and LNJP. Kejriwal also claimed that the LNJP Hospital, which is the biggest Covid facility in Delhi with 2,000 beds, has made a remarkable turnaround. Kejriwal admitted, “We are in a better position today than in June, but that does not mean that the battle has been won. There is still a long way to go, as coronavirus can spread anytime. We need to follow the guidelines and should always wear a mask, social distancing has to be maintained and also one should wash hands regularly to fight against Covid-19.”
