Kejriwal issues urgent appeal for beds as 1 in 3 samples is +ve
NEW DELHI: Delhi on Sunday reported 25,462 Covid-19 cases, with about one in three samples testing positive, as chief minister Arvind Kejriwal made an urgent appeal to the Centre for more hospital beds to tackle the public health crisis, adding that the shortage of oxygen supply in the Capital was now an “emergency”.
Delhi is the middle of its fourth Covid-19 wave, the worst to hit the national capital so far. On Sunday, the positivity rate was 29.74%, with 161 deaths being reported in the last 24 hours.
Fewer than 100 intensive care unit beds were available in the city of more than 20 million people, Kejriwal said, with widespread complaints about the lack of beds, oxygen cylinders and crucial drugs.
“The bigger worry is that in last 24 hours positivity rate has increased to around 30% from 24% ... The cases are rising very rapidly. The beds are filling fast,” Kejriwal told a digital news briefing.
The test positivity rate – a ratio of the number of positive cases to total tests conducted, and a measure of the scale of an outbreak in the region – shot up from 0.59% over a month ago, to 29.74% on Sunday.
In a separate statement, the Delhi government said it informed the Centre about “the dire need of beds and oxygen” and beds were now being set up in schools.
Kejriwal said Delhi was facing an “acute shortage” of oxygen for Covid-19 patients and added that the quota of the city was diverted to other states. The remarks came hours after he wrote the letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Del facing acute shortage of oxygen. In view of sharply increasing cases, Del needs much more than normal supply. Rather than increasing supply, our normal supply has been sharply reduced and Delhi’s quota has been diverted to other states. OXYGEN HAS BECOME
AN EMERGENCY IN DEL,” the chief minister tweeted on Sunday evening.
He also wrote a letter to Union commerce and industries minister Piyush Goyal in this regard.
The Union minister told ANI: “State governments should keep demand (for medical oxygen) under control. Demand-side management is as important as supply-side management. Containing Covid-19 spread is the responsibility of state governments and they should fulfil this responsibility.”
Delhi, which has imposed a weekend curfew, is among the worst hit cities in India. The weekend curfew comes on top of 10pm-5am night curfew restrictions that are in place until April 30.
Chief minister Kejriwal and lieutenant governor Anil Baijal will hold a meeting with senior government officers on Monday over the Covid-19 situation in the national capital.
Nationwide, India reported 275,482 new cases on Sunday, taking the total number of cases past 15 million, second only to the US, which has reported more than 31 million infections. The country’s deaths from Covid-19 rose by a 1,622 to reach a total of 178,814.
At the briefing, Kejriwal said he urged Union home minister Amit Shah to increase the number of Covid-19 beds in central government hospitals and help with oxygen supply.
“In the last 24 hours, Delhi recorded around 25,500 new cases, up from around 24,000 the previous day and 19,500 new cases the day before that,” he said.
“Cases are increasing at a fast rate and Covid-19 beds are getting occupied across the city. People are getting admitted in hospitals at an unprecedented rate. There is a major crisis of ICU beds. There are less than 100 ICU beds left in Delhi. We are facing a major shortage of oxygen, too. Last night, a private hospital told us that they almost ran into a disaster situation with a major shortage of oxygen supply,” the CM added.