Kejriwal to chair meeting today to review Covid situation in Delhi
The CM will chair the meeting at 4pm on Friday with Jain and senior officials at the Secretariat where he will review the status of hospital beds, ICU, ventilators,etc., said an official at the chief minister’s office
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will chair a meeting this evening with health minister Satyendar Jain and senior government officials to review the Covid-19 situation in the Capital and its healthcare infrastructure, even as he appointed deputy CM Manish Sisodia as the “nodal minister” for pandemic management and inter-ministerial coordination.
“The CM will chair a meeting at 4pm today with the health minister and senior officials to review the Covid-19 situation. The meeting will take place in the Secretariat. The CM will also review the status of hospital beds, ICU, ventilators, etc.,” said an official at the chief minister’s office who did not wish to be identified.
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The meeting comes a day after Kejriwal expressed concerns over the Covid-19 situation in the city and the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) imposed restrictions that involve a weekend curfew, temporary shutting down of shopping malls, gyms, spas and entertainment parks, cap of 30% on the capacity of cinema halls and multiplexes, restricted dining at restaurants, and a limit on weekly markets to one per day in each municipal zone. There was already a night curfew in place, which would continue, the DDMA said in its order.
In a separate order issued on Friday morning signed by Kejriwal, a copy of which HT has seen, the Delhi government said, “Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister, shall function as nodal minister for Covid-19 management and shall be responsible for inter-ministerial coordination till further orders.”
The senior official in the CM’s office said such delegation of duties was necessary because the chief minister is personally monitoring the healthcare management system round-the-clock in the light of the current surge.
Delhi on Friday recorded 16,699 new Covid-19 cases and 112 more deaths, the government’s health bulletin said. In Delhi, the positivity rate was 20.22%, the highest in 294 days.
This number has shot up over the past few weeks, well past the 5% threshold as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Delhi’s positivity rate fell below 5% on December 3. It then dropped to below 1% on December 28, and stayed beneath that number for 82 days.The city also has over 54,000 active cases, its highest ever, on Friday,