Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a meeting with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the number of covid-19 cases as well as the positivity rate in the national capital is steadily decreasing since November 10 when 8,600 cases of coronavirus were reported in Delhi.
The Chief Minister told the Prime Minister that the high severity of the third wave of Covid-19 in the national Capital is due to many factors and pollution being an important one. “The pollution from stubble burning in the neighbouring states has been a significant contributor in making the third wave of corona more dangerous. The Chief Ministers of the neighbouring states should work as a team to eliminate stubble burning under the leadership of the PM,” he told during the meeting.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also demanded the intervention of the Prime Minister to resolve the issue of stubble burning with the help of bio-decomposer technology. He said, "We want that under your leadership, the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana should work together as a team to eliminate stubble burning.
In view of the rise in corona cases across the country, Prime Minister interacted through video conferencing with the Chief Ministers of eight states. The meeting comes a day after the Supreme Court expressed concern over the surge in number of Covid-19 cases across the country. The court asked the Centre and all States to file within two days status reports detailing the steps taken to deal with the situation.
Kejriwal also briefed the Prime Minister about the measures being taken to combat the situation. “There are sufficient numbers of non-ICU COVID beds available in Delhi but there is a shortage of ICU beds.
He appealed to the Prime Minister to reserve 1000 ICU beds in the central government hospitals located in the city for Delhiites.
“Out of the total beds reserved for COVID patients in all government and private hospitals across Delhi, 9400 beds are occupied while 8500 beds are still vacant. We have adequate number of non-ICU beds. Out of the total ICU beds available across Delhi, around 3500 ICU beds are occupied and 724 ICU beds are still vacant. If the Central Government decides to reserve 1000 beds in central government hospitals like Safdarjung and AIIMS, it will be a great support to us. We are thankful for all the help that we and the people of Delhi have received from the Central Government during the time of epidemic," he said in a statement.
Kejriwal further told the PM that the first wave of corona in Delhi came in June, during which 20,000 samples were collected every day across the city.
“The Delhi Government had increased the sample collection in September to 60000 per day. The third wave of Corona is still going on in Delhi. The positivity rate in Delhi has been constantly declining but the rising mortality rate is a matter of concern. We hope that the mortality rate will also reduce along with the declining positivity ratio in the coming days,” he said.
Delhi recorded 4,454 fresh Covid-19 cases and a positivity rate of 11.94 per cent on Monday, while 121 more fatalities pushed the death toll due to the disease to 8,512 in the city. This was the sixth time in 12 days that the daily number of deaths crossed the 100-mark in the national capital. Authorities reported 121 deaths due to Covid-19 on Sunday, 111 on Saturday, 118 on Friday, 131 on November 18, the highest till date, and 104 on November 12.
