After the Delhi Government received permission from the Centre to carry out plasma therapy treatment on Covid-19 patients, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said plasma therapy and providing pulse oxymeters to the patients recovering from coronavirus are the two foremost steps to ensure there are no deaths due to the pandemic.
“To ensure that there are no deaths from corona, we have taken two major steps. The first is plasma therapy, Delhi was the first State in the nation where plasma therapy was used, the trials were conducted on 29 patients in the LNJP for the first time. The therapy yielded outstanding results on the patients, after which we have gotten permission to conduct 200 more plasma therapy trials in Delhi,” Kejriwal said.
Importantly, amongst the Government hospitals, LNJP and Rajiv Gandhi hospital have got permission to conduct plasma therapy trials.
While many private hospitals have also asked for permission to conduct plasma therapy, Kejriwal said, "The results have shown that the patients who are in a serious condition, on ventilator or is suffering from multi-organ failure, it is hard to save the patient through plasma therapy. But, those with moderate symptoms can recover, and plasma therapy can avert their condition from getting worse in the future. So, we hope that we can save lives through plasma therapy in the future.”
Delhi Government will also set up a ICU beds in their hospitals mainly - LNJP, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, and GTB Hospital.
Ensuring Its citizens on Covid -19 cases, he said the situation is under control and no need to worry while for patients under home isolation, Kejriwal said patients under home isolation have been sent pulse oximeters which will act as their Suraksha Kawach.
“It is very easy to use. If your oxygen level falls below 94, please contact us immediately, and oxygen will be sent to your home. Yesterday( Thursday) I spoke to a patient who is recovering from Corona in home isolation and has used the oxymeter provided to him by the Delhi Government. He is very happy and satisfied with the oxymeter,” Kejriwal said while playing the patient’s audio clip amidst the presser.
He also said that the Delhi Government has increased testing by three times but positive cases have increased by around 3,000 per day only. “Out of the total Covid-19 patients, approx. 45,000 people have recovered,” “Delhi has been getting mild cases over the past week, which is why out of 13,500 total beds in the hospitals, Delhi has been using 6,000 COVID beds for the past week as most cases have mild symptoms and are recovering at their homes.”
Kejriwal said, "As of today, there are 74,000 Corona cases in Delhi, but if we try to comprehend these cases, I would say that the situation is under control, it is worrisome but there is no need to panic. A few days back, we used to conduct around 5,000-6,000 tests daily, out of which around 2,000-2,500 cases were found to be positive. We have increased the testing three times, and now instead of 5,000 tests per day, we are conducting 18,000-20,000 tests per day. We have seen that even if the testing has increased three-fold in the last few days, the Corona positive cases have only increased from 2,000 to 3,000-3,500. If in the coming days, we conduct 1-2 lakh tests daily, it is natural to observe a spike in the number of Corona cases."
"A favourable thing is that out of 74,000 cases, around 45,000 cases have recovered, which shows that people are recovering from Corona swiftly. There have been around 2,400 deaths due to Corona in Delhi, and out of the 26,000 active Corona patients in Delhi, only 6,000 people are in hospitals. The rest of the cases are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, and are recovering in home isolation," he added.
Meanwhile, Delhi Cabinet has also approved a decision to install 450 beds at Burari hospital will help in the treatment of corona patients at times when banquet halls, community centres and hotels have been attached with hospitals to increase the bed capacity.
