Beaten projections but can’t be complacent: Kejriwal
NEWDELHI:CHIEF minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said Delhi now is in a “much better” Covid-19 situation than what was projected in June, but cautioned that there is no room for complacency.
“Based on the formula given by the Central government, in early June we had projected that by July 15, which is today, the total Covid-19 cases in Delhi would touch 225,000. But, today we actually have only half of the projected cases. There are 115,000 cases. It was expected that there would be 134,000 active cases by July 15, but till date, there are only 18,600 active cases in the city. Accordingly, it was projected that 34,000 beds would be needed by now, but currently, only around 4,000 beds are occupied,” Kejriwal said addressing a digital press conference.
Kejriwal said the “Delhi model”, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked other states to follow, has helped reduce both cases and deaths. The chief minister added that the favourable results in Covid-19 management in the Capital would not have been possible without the help of the Centre, the hotels, NGOS, religious institutions and other stakeholders.
Kejriwal reiterated that Delhi now has sufficient beds. There are more than 15,000 beds in Covid-19 care facilities. “On June 1, we had only 300 ICU beds, but today, we have 2,100 ICU beds out of which 1,000 have so far been occupied. We are in a better situation today, as compared to June, but it does not mean we have won the war (against Covid-19). We have yet to go a long way.
The chief minister said the Delhi government worked on three principles after realising that the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be won alone.
“If the Delhi government had thought it would win the fight against coronavirus alone, we would have failed. Our first principle was that this fight cannot be won alone. “Our second principle was that we did not criticise our critics for their views about our work. We improved things after somebody flagged it. The third principle was that we did not accept defeat. Had we accepted defeat, there would have been a surge in the numbers of deaths,” he said.