Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain said that the lockdown, imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus, will not be extended in the national Capital. When asked, during virtual interaction, if there has been a discussion on the extension of lockdown in Delhi given rise in coronavirus cases in Delhi, he said it will not be extended.
Sharing Covid -19 data Jain said, "There are 34,687 corona cases in Delhi as of now, out of which around 1,877 cases came yesterday and 20,871 cases are active corona cases. Around 12,731 cases have recovered and there have been 1085 deaths. A total of 65 people have died in Delhi on Thursday."
"For the last one or two months, the cases of Corona are doubling after every two weeks. Normally, it takes two weeks for a person to recover, but infects some people before he gets fully recovered. However, community transmission is a very technical term, and I believe that if it is community transmission or not that can be declared by the government or international organizations like WHO. The coronavirus, however, is spreading very rapidly," he said.
Elaborating further on lockdown situation, Jain said, “We have to see the context of the situation. The Corona pandemic has been the worst disease to have hit the humankind in the last 100 years. Around 100 years ago, a virus known as Spanish Flu of the same intensity spread across the world, and now Coronavirus is spreading with the same intensity.”
“To say that the case count is more in Delhi and less everywhere else is not correct. The case count across different nations can be different, which is also true for various cities because some cities which saw a spike in the cases earlier are now witnessing a decline in the number of cases. The cities which have been hit by the pandemic much later, are witnessing a stark rise in the case count, but the intensity of the spread of the disease is the same. Spanish Flu was also a kind of coronavirus. It has been renamed as Novel COVID-19 today. This virus is dangerous because it spreads very rapidly,” said Jain.
He further said, "Those who are cremated under the COVID-19 protocol, belong to two of these categories. One, those who died because of Corona, and two, those who are suspects of Corona. That the person should be cremated under the Covid -19 protocol is given in writing. For instance, if a senior citizen in a family passes away, and there was a Covid -19+ve case or a suspect in their family, they will be treated as Corona suspects and they will be cremated under the Covid -19 protocol.” “That also holds if they themselves also had any Corona symptoms before death. We get all the reporting on such cases from the hospitals. It takes two-four days for hospitals to report on this. The entire details of the patients are in those reports, including basic details like patients' names and ages. The government has created a system for this, and all the hospitals report to us in a very systematic manner.”
Reacting on the MCD death data, he said, “MCDs should send the details to the Delhi government. It also happens that we observe cases wherein the patient was cremated under the Covid -19 protocol but their reports show negative later on when obtained from the hospitals. Therefore, if the MCDs have the details of the casualties, it should send it to the Delhi Government but it can't say over 2,000 people have died if they only have numbers and not the details. There should also be a positive report of those patients and the number should also be confirmed."
Clarifying further on MCD hospitals not being used by the Delhi government, “They have to treat the patients of Covid -19 themselves. All the central government hospitals have done so. The MCDs have their own hospitals, and they can treat Covid -19 patients there. We are not taking over their hospitals. Just as the centre, municipal corporations can start the treatment of Covid -19 patients if they have hospitals. The Delhi government has no role to play in it as they need not ask us to start the treatment in their hospitals."
Jain said that in view of the growing cases, the Delhi Government is making preparations on its part. He said, "Beds and ventilators will be increased. The central Government has also told us that they will ensure full cooperation, so we will also seek their help. Their hospitals have a lot of ICU beds. There are around 13000 beds in the central government hospitals, we would like to request the centre to use those beds for Covid -19 treatment."
“Banquet halls, community halls, and stadiums, etc are being prepared on a large scale for Covid -19 treatment. 80% beds in the Covid -19 dedicated Delhi government hospitals are oxygen beds, and we are also preparing oxygen beds in non-dedicated Covid -19 hospitals of the Delhi Government," Jain added.
