Omicron, possible third wave of Covid-19: Kejriwal on Delhi govt's preparation

Addressing an online briefing, Arvind Kejriwal also said that preparations to deal with a possible third wave of Covid-19 were also reviewed. He added that Delhi government is ordering 32 kinds of medicines to create a buffer stock.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday that his government has prepared 30,000 oxygen beds and ramped up oxygen supply and storage facilities in the wake of the threat posed by the new omicron variant of coronavirus.

File photo of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. (PTI)

He also held a review meeting with officials of various government departments to review the preparations to deal with a possible third wave.

"This time, we have prepared 30,000 oxygen beds. Out of these, 10,000 are ICU beds. There are 6,800 beds under construction that will be ready by February,” the chief minister said in an online briefing.

Giving details about the preparations, Kejriwal said the government will be able to provide 100 beds at a two-week notice. The Delhi government is also ordering 32 kinds of medicines to create a buffer stock of two months, he added.

The national capital grappled with an oxygen crisis during the second wave in April and May, the chief minister said, adding the government has created an extra storage facility of 442 metric tonnes of medical oxygen, something that was not there during the previous wave.

In the wake of fast-spreading omicron variant, Kejriwal had urged the central government to ban flights from countries where cases of the new strain have been detected.

Currently, Delhi has at least one traveller from Germany, suspected to be infected with the new variant, admitted to Medanta hospital, according to officials. His sample has already been sent for genome sequencing to the National Centres for Disease Control and a report is awaited.

Omicron was first identified in southern Africa on November 24 and since then has spread to more than a dozen countries. India is still untouched by the variant, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in Parliament on Tuesday, assuring that the government has put in place enough checks to stop the variant from reaching the country.

In fresh guidelines issued on November 25, the health ministry asked state governments to tighten the screening of all the international passengers. It has also told the states to ramp up testing underlining that the omicron variant does not escape RT-PCR and RAT tests.

Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a high-level virtual meeting with state governments, where he advised them not to let their guard down.