No BF.7 case in Delhi, AAP Govt ready to deal with situation: Kejriwal
With the spread of Covid-19 on the surge in China and other countries, the Delhi Government said under the leadership of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal it is leaving no stone unturned to protect its citizens.
Kejriwal chaired a high-level review meeting on Thursday to assess the Covid situation and take stock of the government’s preparedness. The CM sought all information about the availability of oxygen, beds and other critical facilities & equipment from health department officials and gave directions to ramp up preparedness in terms of infrastructure and awareness as per the situation.
He directed the health department to keep a close watch on Covid and warned officials of strict action if any kind of negligence was found in the due course of time. The meeting was attended by Deputy CM Manish Sisodia who holds the charge of the Health Department as well as the Chief Secretary and senior officers of the concerned departments.
Kejriwal stated: “Not a single case of BF.7 variant in Delhi at present, but the AAP Government is fully prepared to deal with any possible situation. The new prevalent variant of corona in China is BF.7, no case of BF.7 variant has been found in testing so far in Delhi. If the need arises, we can test up to one lakh people daily. Right now we have 8,000 beds allotted for Corona; in the previous peak there were 25000 beds, now we have prepared for 36000 beds. At present we have 6,000 reserve oxygen cylinders and 15 oxygen tankers as well as a capacity to store 928 metric tonnes of oxygen. In Delhi, almost 100 percent people have got the first and second dose, but only 24 percent people have got their precaution dose. With folded hands, I request all the people of Delhi to get their precaution dose administered as soon as they can.”
During the meeting, the CM also issued instructions to send all positive cases for genome sequencing, increase precaution dose coverage & manpower in hospitals. He directed officials to take prior approval for procurement of essential items needed and inspect machines in all hospitals.
Right after the meeting, Kejriwal addressed the media and said: “The number of Covid cases in China has suddenly shot up and because of that there is a concern regarding the re-emergence in India as well. Apart from China, Corona cases in some other countries in the world are also on the rise. The variant of concern in China is BF.7. As of now in Delhi, there has been no case of this variant. So, at the moment there is nothing to worry about. The said variant has so far not been found during the testing. We have been sending all the positive tests from Delhi for genome sequencing. But apart from that we have also picked up sewage from seven parts of the city and tested it for the BF.7 variant and no positive result has been found so far. The few positive cases of Covid that have emerged in Delhi in the last couple of days are of XBB variant or its sub lineages. Around 92 percent of positive Covid cases in Delhi at the moment are of the XBB variant.”
He said: “I want to assure the people of Delhi that there is no reason to worry as of now. If in a worst case scenario the Covid-19 cases are to rise, then the state government is well equipped to handle the increase in the number of cases. Firstly, all the cases that are found to be positive for Covid-19 are being sent for genome sequencing, as per the rules laid out by the Central Government. Secondly, at the moment we are conducting nearly 2500 tests per day, but we have expanded our capacity to conduct up to 1 lakh tests per day in Delhi. Thirdly, if the need arises, we have kept 8,000 beds available for Covid-19 patients in Delhi. These are the beds that are vacant at the moment. During the peak of the Covid-19 wave last year, we had increased the number of beds to 25,000. This time the capacity has been ramped up to 36,000 beds.”
He said: “One of the main problems during the pandemic last year was the availability of oxygen. On the one hand, oxygen was not available and if it was made available our capacity to store it was very low. This time we have ramped it up and we can store up to 928 metric tons of oxygen. Another key issue faced the last time around was the lack of oxygen cylinders. People were running around with patients looking for a cylinder last year. Apart from all the cylinders that are available in our government hospitals we also have a reserve of 6000 cylinders. Last year, during the peak of the pandemic, we had imported 6000 cylinders and these are now stocked in reserve. A problem that we faced the last time was if a state agreed to provide us oxygen, we did not have adequate numbers of tankers to bring it to Delhi. This time around the Delhi government has 12 tankers and there are another 3 private tankers that we can use if the need arises, so we have 15 tankers to transport oxygen.”
He said: “The vaccination coverage for the first two doses in Delhi is nearly 100 per cent, but unfortunately the coverage for the precautionary dose is only 24 per cent. With folded hands, I urge all the people in the state to come out and get their precautionary doses. Even in the meeting today, I urged the officers to arrange a campaign under which we can go door-to-door and get the people to take their precautionary doses. We have an adequate number of ambulances to transport people from their homes to the hospitals. We have 380 ambulances at the moment and today we have asked for the procurement of more ambulances. So, we are as prepared as we can be to face another wave of Covid-19, but we hope that things remain under control and we do not have to use these provisions.”
During the meeting, officials from the Health Department presented information about the global situation of COVID-19 in front of the CM. According to WHO, Covid-19 is rapidly spreading in many countries, including China. Covid-19 infection rates seem to be about 3 per cent higher between December 12 and 18 than the previous week. Officials stated that the department is completely serious about preventing Covid-19 infection and that the guidelines received are strictly followed in addition to continuous testing. Work on complying with the new guidelines has also begun on the end of the government.
