3rd wave of Covid-19 in Delhi? Yes, says Satyendar Jain as Capital records 6.7K fresh cases

Pointing out that the main issue was the availability of ICU beds, he said that the state government will approach the Supreme Court over the Delhi High Court’s order to stay its decision on reserving ISCE beds in private hospitals.

The steep rise in cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) disease in Delhi can be considered a “third wave”, health minister Satyendar Jain said on Wednesday. However, the spike could also be attributed to aggressive contact tracing and ramped up testing, he added.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Delhi could be attributed to aggressive contact tracing. (Sonu Mehta/HT Photo)

“About 6,800 beds are occupied in Delhi due to Covid-19 while 9,000 are available. We can call this the third wave of Covid-19 cases here but we have focused on aggressive testing in the last 15 days so the spike can be attributed to that too,” Jain said.

Pointing out that the main issue was the availability of ICU beds, he said that the state government will approach the Supreme Court over the Delhi High Court’s order to stay its decision on reserving ISCE beds in private hospitals.

On September 22, the SC stayed an order of the Delhi government reserving 80% of the ICU beds for Covid-19 patients, saying that prima facie, the order appeared to be “arbitrary”, “unreasonable” and in violation of the fundamental rights of an individual.

“We’re going to the Supreme Court to address the High Court overturn of our mandate to reserve 80 per cent beds as ICU beds in private hospitals because the main issue is that of the availability of ICU beds,” Jain said.

Jain, however, reassured people that the treatment protocols in both government and private hospitals were the same.

On Tuesday, the national Capital again set a record for the highest Covid-19 cases reported in a single day with 6,725 new infections taking the total tally past 400,000.

(with ANI inputs)