Delhi recorded 6,500 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours and the positivity rate has declined to 11 per cent, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday and also announced the launch of oxygen concentrator banks for patients in home isolation. He also said that though daily cases have dipped, the Delhi government will not let its guard down and keep fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The number of cases was over 8,500 and the positivity rate was 12 per cent on Friday, the chief minister said.
The government has started oxygen concentrator banks for patients who are in home isolation and require oxygen support, Kejriwal said in an online briefing.
The 11 districts of Delhi will be given 200 oxygen concentrators each and these will be provided to patients in home isolation on the recommendation of doctors, the chief minister said.
Those persons who have been discharged from the hospital after treatment of COVID-19 will also be provided concentrators if recommended by doctors, he said.
Kejriwal said that he hoped that cases and the positivity rate will go down further and ultimately, the spread of the infection will stop.
He also lauded doctors and engineers for setting up 1,000 intensive care unit beds in Delhi in the last 15 days and said they have set an example before the world.
On Friday, Kejriwal had said a makeshift COVID-19 facility attached to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital will start operations on Saturday with 250 ICU beds. Kejriwal inspected the facility at Ramlila ground on Friday and thanked the doctors, engineers, and workers who set up 500 ICU beds in just 15 days.
He said 250 ICU beds will start on Saturday, and the remaining will become operational by Monday.
Another 500 ICU beds have already become operational at a COVID care facility attached to the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital. A total of 200 ICU beds are being prepared at the Radha Soami COVID facility in Chhatarpur, according to a statement.
COVID-19 situation in Delhi
Delhi on Friday recorded 8,506 COVID-19 cases, the daily count dipping to below the 10,000-mark again after a month, with medical experts believing the lockdown to be the main factor behind the dip amid the second wave of the pandemic. The national capital had registered 7,897 coronavirus cases on April 10 with 39 deaths, as per official data.
The fatality count stood at 289 on Friday, with experts cautioning that even over 8,500 daily cases was "still a huge figure" and "severity of cases were still the same as before".
Doctors at leading government and private hospitals in Delhi said there is a relative fall in the number of cases and "still a long way to go" before the daily count falls below the 2,000-mark, as it was a few months earlier.
"Lockdown, I would say is the biggest factor in arriving at a situation where we are now when daily cases from 28,000 have come down to about 8,500.
However, it is still a huge figure, and there should be no room for complacency, on any front," Medical Director of Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH), B L Sherwal said.
RGSSH is a Delhi government-run 650-bed facility, and about 500 beds are earmarked for treating COVID patients, and 350 are currently occupied, most of them being ICU patients, he said.
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