For second day running, Delhi records more than thousand Covid-19 cases

In a change of strategy, Kejriwal government narrative now focuses on stressing that most patients recover without serious consequences

At 1,106, Delhi recorded its highest one-day figure of Covid positive cases on Friday, the second consecutive day when the national capital crossed the thousand mark.

In terms of cities with the most cases, Delhi, with more than 17,000 cases, is now second only to Mumbai which has over 35,000 cases. Delhi logged 1,024 confirmed cases on Thursday.

As cases continue to rise, Delhi government ministers are now trying to calm the public. Both chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia stressed that people should not panic because of the rise in Covid numbers.

Indicating a change in strategy to tackle the surge in cases, the state government’s narrative now focuses on telling people that most patients of Covid-19 recover without serious consequences.

On Friday, Kejriwal tweeted guidelines of home isolation saying that “over 80% of Corona patients have either no symptoms or very mild symptoms. Such patients can recover in the comfort of their home.”

The guidelines offer instructions to patients _about home isolation _ their neighbours and caregivers. They talk of procedures to self-monitor, and also provide a nutrition guide.

The same message was repeated in a digital briefing by Sisodia and state health minister Satyendar Jain. “There is this fear that once somebody tests positive, they have to be admitted to a hospital. We get a lot of panic calls too,” said Sisodia, adding that if symptoms are not severe people should confine themselves to an isolated room and stay quarantined.

“Other family members should maintain a safe distance and keep their homes (and self) sanitized,” he said.

In his message, Kejriwal also added that his government was in any case ready for patients who needed hospitalization.

Delhi Covid beds

On May 25, the chief minister had provided a break-up of hospital beds available in the city. In Covid-dedicated government hospitals, 3,829 beds are available. Of these, oxygen is available in 3,164 beds.

Kejriwal said only 1,471 beds were occupied and nearly 2,500 beds remained free. In private hospitals, he said, 509 of 677 beds were occupied.

“That is why the government released an order to 117 private hospitals in Delhi to allocate 20 per cent of their beds for coronavirus patients,” Kejriwal had said. He had also said that 250 ventilators were available of which about 240 of them not in use.

Revised numbers

On Friday, state health minister Jain revised the figures to more than 5,000 beds for coronavirus treatment: 1,400 beds in private hospitals, and 3,700 in government hospitals. He also revised the ventilator count to more than 300 of which 28 remained occupied.

However, state BJP leaders have claimed that the number of hospital beds were much less than what the state government had initially claimed.

People are being cheated: BJP

Two days ago, Delhi BJP chief and MP Manoj Tiwari accused chief minister Kejriwal of “cheating” the people of Delhi as there was a huge shortage of hospital beds.

He said the government had earlier claimed that it had beds and other facilities to treat 30,000 patients. But in Delhi High Court, the government said it only had 3,150 beds.

Delhi BJP MLA Vijendra Gupta made similar allegations against the state government on Monday, saying that only 4,500 beds had been made available after promising facilities for 30,000 people.

On April 7, when Delhi had 525 confirmed cases, Kejriwal had stated that as many as 3,000 beds (2,450 beds in government hospitals and 400 in private hospitals) were ready for Covid patients. He also said that when the city would have 30,000 active patients, the government would arrange for 8,000 hospital beds.

This was the day when Kejriwal revealed a 5-T (testing, tracing, treatment, teamwork and tracking) plan to tackle the spread of the virus. To ramp up capacities for 30,000 patients, he had spoken of taking over hotels and banquet halls as well.