Delhi saw 2,914 corona cases on Friday: Cases rising as testing doubled, says Kejriwal
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said that the Corona situation in Delhi is under control, and asserted that the number of corona cases is rising in Delhi because the government has doubled testing in the capital.
He also said that the daily death rate in the city is not only the lowest in the country but also across the world. The fatality rate in Delhi is 1.4%, which is lower than the national fatality rate which lies at 1.7%.
He said out of 14000 Corona beds in Delhi hospitals, only 5000 remain occupied out of which 1600-1700 beds are assigned to residents of states other than Delhi. He also said that the Delhi government has improved the healthcare services in Delhi, because of which people from all across the country come to Delhi in search of a better treatment, which should be a matter of pride for Delhiites.
Kejriwal said that in the last few days, the corona cases in Delhi have slightly increased and some people have expressed concern over the same. He said: “Yesterday, Delhi witnessed 2,914 corona cases in the capital. I have spoken to many experts in the last few days, some say it is a second wave and some have opined against a second wave. But if we keep all these technical things aside, I have inspected the situation, the preparations, and all the data related to corona in the last few days. All I want to say is that there is no need to worry. The situation is under control. I have been putting forward all the state of affairs in front of you with truth and transparency since the last 4-5 months when the corona pandemic hit Delhi. When the situation worsened in the month of June, we made you aware of the situation that the cases might be on a rise till July 31, and we have to be fully prepared to tackle the situation.
“But today, I am only saying this after expecting the whole situation, the situation in Delhi is completely under control. We do not need to worry about it but there should be no scope for complacency.”
“Time and again I have said that there should be no deaths because of corona. This is the most crucial aspect of corona. Yesterday there were 2914 corona cases and only 13 deaths. The death count is the lowest not only across the country but across the world, which means that the death rate yesterday was 0.4%.
“The day before yesterday, there were 2737 Corona cases, and there were 19 deaths which means the death rate that day was 0.6%. If we compare this to the month of June the number of cases on June 27 was 2900, and there were 66 deaths due to corona,” he said.
Kejriwal said there were days in June when the daily number of deaths was more than 100, and today the number of deaths ranges between 10-20 despite the same number of corona positive cases.
The data between August 15 and today shows that the fatality rate of Delhi is 1.4%, which means that out of 100 infected people, one is losing their life. The fatality rate of the country is 1.7%.
Kejriwal asserted that the Delhi government has taken several steps to bring down the number of deaths in Delhi. He said: “We formed separate teams of the doctors and inspected every hospital in Delhi, be it a private hospital, a government hospital, an MCD Hospital, etc.
“We conducted audits of these hospitals to find out the reasons behind the rising number of deaths in a particular hospital. The teams of the doctors have done a commendable job. We addressed every single issue, no matter how small or big it was, due to which the deaths were happening and rectified it. I want to thank all the doctors, the officers, and all the hospitals who have cooperated in our objective to bring down the number of deaths in Delhi. People are getting infected but they are also recovering swiftly. Around 87% of the people have recovered in Delhi, the national recovery rate is 77%.”
He said: “Coming to the number of rising cases in Delhi, we have drastically increased testing in Delhi. A week back we were conducting 18000 to 20000 tests per day, and we have suddenly doubled the tests tour around 40000 per day. You can consider this as our biggest counter-attack on Corona. I am not worried about the stats, I am only worried about your health and well-being. If I reduce the tests to 20000 again the number of cases would go down to 1500-1600 daily, instead of 2900. If possible I would want every citizen in Delhi to get tested. It is my responsibility to provide the best health care services to anyone who has gotten infected.
“If we do more tests we will be able to identify more and more people infected by corona. On one hand, we will be able to provide our best medical services to all those who have been corona infected and on the other hand, we will be able to isolate them and reduce the risk of spread of the virus. But we do not need to worry because of the daily count of cases, we should not let the death count rise in Delhi.”
