Scaling up health infra for 3rd stage: Kejriwal
Arrangements being made to tackle up to 1,000 cases instead of 100 per day, says CM
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said that the government is scaling up the health infrastructure to handle the situation in case the national capital enters stage-3 of the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Kejriwal said that currently arrangements are available to handle 100 patients of coronavirus per day and it will be enhanced to 1,000 patients per day.
Addressing a digital press conference, Mr Kejriwal said a team of doctors has submitted a detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) on the issue and the government is fully prepared to deal with upto 100 patients per day and is gearing up to handle 1,000 positive cases daily in future.
“A five-member team of doctors under the chairmanship of Dr S.K. Sareen, who is the head of ILBS hospital, had submitted its report on Thursday, including a comprehensive plan of action on the preparations made in the wake of the surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi.
“They differentiated the action plan into three stages, first is what can be done if we get 100 new cases every day, second is what can be done if we get 500 new cases every day, and third is what can be done if we get 1,000 new cases every day,” said the chief minister.
The chief minister explained that a detailed plan has been created to see how many isolation beds, ventilators, ICU beds, testing mechanisms and strength, ambulances, and medical staff such as doctors and nurses under each head of 100, 500, and 1,000 new cases every day.
Mr Kejriwal clarified that the situation is under control right now since there is a maximum increase of 3-4 cases per day and there were also days when no new cases were registered.
Arrangements are being
made to be future ready, if the situation worsens, he said.
“Coronavirus cases went up to 39 on Friday, out of which 29 had come from aboard and were kept in quarantine and 10 are cases of transmission from infected persons,” the chief minister said.
In another press conference on Friday evening, Mr Kejriwal, flanked by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, said the spread of the novel coronavirus is “quite under control” in
the national capital so far. The AAP government, however, is readying itself so that even if the number of infected cases increases sharply, the administration is prepared to
respond, he said. The chief minister assured people that medical staff were ready to tackle the situation even if the cases go up at a rate of 100 per day, and there was adequate medicines
and testing kits.
After the press conference, Mr Baijal tweeted: “Efforts to maintain social distancing at dispensing points to be stepped up. My advice to all DMs to keep up the efforts to maintain lockdown, social distancing & effectively coordinate for provision of food for the homeless & destitute. None should go hungry.”
Our team is working non-stop to ensure people face least difficulty during the lockdown. Urge all media friends to continue pointing out gaps in relief work during this lockdown. — Arvind Kejriwal,
Delhi CM