Delhi CM lists out 'five weapons' to fight COVID-19

New Delhi: Raking up his slogan of "Corona harega aur Delhi Jeetega", Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday asserted that his government has adopted 'five weapons' to fight the virus - ramping up bed capacity, testing, survey and screening, providing oximeter and plasma therapy.

Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said that after the spurt of cases in the national capital, the Delhi government had options to either impose another lockdown or fight the virus. "We decided to fight it and a plan was made and five weapons were prepared to fight it," he added.

The Chief Minister said that the capital city currently has the capacity of 13,500 beds, out of which 7,500 are vacant and only 6,000 are occupied. "We are arranging more beds in case the need arises in future. We will not sit idle."

According to the Delhi government's data, 6,221 beds are currently occupied in the hospitals out of a total capacity of 13,411 beds, 1,504 in the dedicated COVID Care Centres and 344 in the dedicated COVID Health Centre. Over 16,249 people are in home isolation.

Secondly, he said that testing has been increased by four times, adding that 20,000 tests are being conducted daily, the highest in the country. In total, 4,59,156 tests have been performed so far.

"Delhi conducted the highest number of tests in a single day yesterday - 21,144. We have increased testing by four times. Delhi is now following a strategy of very aggressive testing and isolation," Kejriwal added.

Earlier today, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said that over six lakh test kits have been procured and testing is being conducted across the capital on a large scale.

He further said that oximeters have been provided to all the coronavirus patients who are in home isolation to keep a check on their oxygen levels and alert the medical team if they require oxygen or need to be shifted to the hospital.

"We have also bought 4,000 oxygen concentrators to ensure that there are enough oxygen cylinders in the hospitals."

Additionally, he said that authorities have started the mammoth campaign of conducting a serological survey of 20,000 people starting from today in the capital city. It is a diagnostic method used to identify antibodies, which are created by the immune system when someone is infected with the virus.

Kejriwal further said that plasma therapy turned out to be a life-saver for people in the capital. On Friday, he said that since the start of plasma therapy at LNJP hospital, the number of deaths have reduced to less than half as compared to earlier.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the national capital witnessed a spike of 3,460 COVID-19 cases and 63 deaths, pushing the total tally to 77,240.

As many as 2,326 patients recovered in the last 24 hours. Till now, 47,091 people have recovered while 2,492 have succumbed to the deadly disease.