The Delhi Government along with the Centre has started the serological testing to trace and contain the novel coronavirus as on Saturday Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a digital briefing said that around 20,000 testing is being done per day, and Government has plan for 13,590 hospitals beds for those infected by the virus while outlining a five-pronged response to the rising tide of cases in the city.

According to the Kejriwal Government, the five-key weapons against corona battle are —increasing beds in hospitals, testing and isolation, oximeters and oxygen concentration, plasma therapy treatment to save lives and serological survey.

Kejriwal said, "Delhi is fighting a tough battle against Corona. Our fight started in the month of March. In March, when the pandemic had spread across the globe in various nations, Indians living abroad expressed their desire to return to their homes in India. The Central Government took the right decision by arranging for flights for people in other countries to come back to India."

In the month of March, as many as 35,000 Indians came to Delhi, especially from nations that had been badly hit by Coronavirus. CM Kejriwal said, "These people were screened at the airports for fever. Some were sent to RML and Safdurjung, but many were sent to their respective homes. Some people were quarantined, but more or less 35000 people were sent back to their homes.

There was very little information, facts, and guidelines available on Corona. When these people went back to their homes, naturally, the Corona got transmitted to their contacts. In those days, there were no testing kits or testing labs available, testing was not done at the scale it is done today,"

"Then, the lockdown happened. Because people were at their homes all the time, Corona did not spread rapidly and the transmission rate was low. When the lockdown started lifting in the last week of May, we had anticipated a spike in the number of Corona cases. This spike in Delhi can be noticed around May 15. As we entered the month of June, the cases had increased more than expected, and we started noticing the lack of beds and testing in Delhi. Because of a lack of beds, people were not able to get the treatment and there was also a sudden spike in the death rate in Delhi. We had two options, first was reimposing the lockdown and the second was fighting Corona. On asking the people of Delhi, we came across the view that the lockdown has to be lifted someday or the other. Till when is Delhi going to remain in lockdown? The people said the lockdown can not continue indefinitely," added the CM.

Elaborating in five key weapons, Kejriwal said, "It was decided that we will collectively fight a battle against Corona. Five weapons were prepared to fight a hard-hitting battle against Corona.”

Kejriwal said, "Our first step was increasing hospital beds. Our first decision was reserving 40 percent of bed capacity for the treatment of Corona patients in all the big hospitals in Delhi.”  “Second decision was declaring some of the hospitals in Delhi as fully dedicated COVID hospitals. Our third decision was attaching hotels to the hospitals. If a hospital has 100 beds, the hotel attached to it will have 200 beds, and the total bed strength of the hospital will increase to 300 beds. In this way, we have increased the capacity of the hospitals. Some hotels were against it, and they went to the court to overturn our decision. We won the court case, and now 3500 beds have been installed in the hotels. Around 2000 beds have been prepared at the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Centre, and 10000 beds will soon be prepared for the treatment of Corona patients at the care centre. At the newly constructed Burari Hospital, 450 beds have been prepared for Corona treatment temporarily. In the first week of June, there were no beds available in Delhi. However, in the last week of June, there are 13500 beds in Delhi, out of which 6000 beds are occupied and 7500 remain vacant. There is no dearth in the number of beds in the government and private hospitals in the city. The Delhi government will be arranging for more beds in the coming days."

On his second weapon which is testing and isolation, he said,”In the first week of June, we observed that people were not able to get tested accurately. Some labs were also showing inaccuracy in the results, they showed negative results positive and positive results negative. In the first week of June, we were conducting 5000 tests daily, now we are conducting 20000 tests daily. Now, we are not receiving any complaints regarding testing. We are conducting tests in every street and identifying Corona patients and isolating them. I want to thank the central government for providing antigen kits for conducting rapid testing in Delhi. We have also procured 6 lakh kits to conduct these tests, but the initial kits were given by the central government. They have supported us," 

"Our third weapon is oximeters and oxygen concentrators. The biggest issue in Corona is that a person may die due to constantly lowering oxygen levels. People who are recovering at home have been provided oximeters by the Delhi government, that detects your oxygen level accurately. We have advised the patients to check their oxygen level after every two hours. These oximeters are working as a Suraksha Kawach for Corona patients. If a person comes to a hospital, he should not suffer because of a lack of oxygen cylinders. We have procured around 4000 oxygen concentrators, and all beds in the Delhi government hospitals have attained supply of oxygen for the patients," Kejriwal said, adding fourth weapon which is plasma therapy treatment, he said,” The first plasma therapy trial was given to 29 patients in Delhi. These first trials were highly successful, and the results were shared with the Drug Controller of India (DCI), which then permitted the trials for Delhi govt and private hospitals in Delhi. Plasma therapy has not proven to effective in the treatment of patients with extreme co-morbidities or serious patients, but it has proved to be effective on moderate patients and it prevents the deteriorating condition."

Adding further more on his corona battle, he said that our fifth weapon is survey and screening. The serological survey in Delhi is starting from Saturday. “Through this survey, we will be able to detect in what places is the Corona spreading rapidly. Many such surveys and screening are conducted in Delhi,"

“Our victory is definite, we will certainly defeat Corona, and these five weapons will prove to be very effective in our battle," he added.