Covid-19: Delhi has overcome third wave, says Kejriwal

Addressing a digital press conference, Kejriwal said that from a peak of around 8,600 fresh cases on a single day, the national Capital’s Covid-19 situation seems to have “significantly” improved, with only 1,133 new cases being reported in the last 24 hours.

New Delhi: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said Delhi seems to have overcome the third wave of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal further said there was a time when Delhi had 45,000 active Covid-19 cases, which came down to almost 12,000 on Saturday. (HT Photo)

Addressing a digital press conference, Kejriwal said that from a peak of around 8,600 fresh cases on a single day, the national Capital’s Covid-19 situation seems to have “significantly” improved, with only 1,133 new cases being reported in the last 24 hours. He also claimed that each and every Covid-19 test conducted in Delhi is genuine and that no “fraud” was done, as reported in some other states.

“There was a time in November when for every 100 persons tested for Covid-19, over 15 used to test positive. The positivity rate back then was 15.26%. Today, the positivity rate has come down to 1.3%. This is probably the lowest in the country. In today’s health bulletin, which will be released shortly, the total tests done in the past 24 hours were 87,000,” he said.

According to Saturday’s bulletin, the positivity rate in Delhi has remained below 2% for the fifth consecutive day.

Kejriwal further said there was a time when Delhi had 45,000 active Covid-19 cases, which came down to almost 12,000 on Saturday. The recovery rate of the city is nearly 96.5%. On November 19, Delhi had recorded the highest number of fatalities with 131 deaths in a single day. On Saturday, the number of Covid-19 deaths in a single day was 36.

“In Delhi, testing was most important for us to fight Covid-19. I am proud of our doctors, officers and other corona warriors who have helped us increase the city’s testing numbers. Till August 20, Delhi used to conduct about 20,000 Covid-19 tests every day. When the second wave came, we increased this to 60,000 tests per day in just about 10 days. When the third wave came, we increased this to 90,000 tests per day. We tested and isolated people, which has been our main Covid-19 management strategy,” Kejriwal said.

On December 16, Delhi, for the first time, conducted 90,354 tests for Covid-19 in a single day - the most the city has ever seen. Delhi saw its first wave in June, the second in September and the third in November.

The chief minister said the current daily figure of about 90,000 tests per day in the city is not only the highest in the country, but is also one of the highest across the world.

“Today, Delhi is conducting 4,500 tests per million of population every day. Uttar Pradesh is testing only 670 people per million daily. Gujarat is testing 850 people per million every day. In the USA, 4,300 tests per million are being conducted every day. England is testing more than Delhi, though, with 4,800 tests per million,” Kejriwal said.

He reiterated that the national Capital was the first in the world to introduce the home isolation system, which reduced the load on the city’s hospitals manifold. He cited the example of New York City, how despite having only around 5,600 new cases per day, it had patients lying in hospital corridors for want of treatment. Kejriwal said that even when Delhi had 8,600 cases on a single day, the city had over 7,000 beds vacant for Covid-19 patients. He also recalled how the city was the first to start plasma therapy which helped keep the number of deaths low.