Speaking to the media, Kejriwal, after the meet, said the number of daily coronavirus tests would now be increased to over 1 lakh to 1.25 lakh. The Central government has assured the availability of 750 ICU beds at the
DRDO center, the chief minister said. Further, the Centre will also assist the Delhi government in getting BiPAP machines to increase the number of ICU beds at Delhi government facilities, Kejriwal said.
"Home Minister Shri
Amit Shah called an emergency meeting over the Covid pandemic situation in Delhi. After this meeting, we have the assurance that all the government agencies of both the central government and the state government will work together to tackle the COVID-19 situation of Delhi. I want to thank Shri Amit Shah Ji for his cooperation," Arvind Kejriwal said.
Over the past two weeks, Delhi has been witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases, with over 6,000 to 7,000 cases being reported daily. But what is more worrying is the increasing number of deaths in the national capital, which has increased from 10 per 1,000 cases from 8 October to 14 per 1,000 now.
As per the government health bulletins, Delhi recorded 401 deaths for the week ending 8 November, a 40 percent increase. This is the highest COVID-19 death tally since July. Delhi reported 77 deaths in the last 24 hours, 79 Saturday, 64 Friday, and 66 Thursday.
While the capital accounted for just 3.6 percent of the country's daily deaths in June, the figure has now jumped to 14 percent.
As per the test positivity rate has also gone up — from 8.54% on September 6 to 15.26% now.
According to the Government of India's Sunday bulletin, 79% of over 45,000 new infections reported in the last 24 hours are from 10 states and UTs, with Delhi overtaking Maharashtra and Kerala as the largest contributor to India's single-day infections, reporting 7,745 fresh cases.
In this situation, Delhi's private and government hospitals are running out of ICU beds. Data from the 'Delhi Corona' app showed that 50 percent of Covid beds in all private and government hospitals were occupied until Monday evening.
Delhi government officials said that they plan to add nearly 5,000 new beds in private and government hospitals by the end of this month, to tackle the third Covid wave in the capital.
On Thursday, the Delhi government decided to augment bed capacity in hospitals, and deploy mobile testing vans in markets and crowded places.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal to review Covid preparedness, along with a need for advance planning to deal with the spread of the virus.
At the meeting, it was also decided to ramp up the medical infrastructure in hospitals by increasing the oxygen facilities and ICU beds, the government had said in a statement.
As per reports, the government plans to add nearly 5,000 beds across private and government hospitals by November-end.