NEW DELHI: Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases globally and concern about another possible wave in India, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday chaired a review meeting of all health officers and said Delhi government was fully prepared to tackle any spread.Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said the government will run a special drive to give precautionary doses to all those who haven’t taken it yet and also conduct mandatory RT-PCR tests on all SARS cases reported in the city.On the issue of mandatory masks and surveillance and testing at IGI airport, he said Delhi will follow the guidelines issued by the Centre.The CM said genome testing and samples taken from the city’s sewage from seven different locations found the presence of XBB variant and its sub-lineage in over 92% of the cases.“The BF.7 variant, which is causing concern in China and other countries, has not been found in Delhi so far. I want to assure the people of Delhi that there is no need to panic,” Kejriwal said, adding, “Even if the virus spreads, we are prepared to tackle it.” The Union health ministry on Wednesday warned against taking the virus lightly and directed all samples of those testing positive with a CT value of less than 25 to be sent for genome sequencing.On December 21, five new Covid cases were reported in the Capital, taking the tally of active patients to 27. So far, Delhi has reported over two million Covid cases and 26,520 people have succumbed to the virus.On Delhi’s infrastructure to deal with a possible rise in cases, Kejriwal said the city has 8,211 dedicated beds and their number can be increased up to 36,000.During the second wave in April-May 2021, there were 25,106 Covid beds in hospitals run by Delhi government, Centre and private establishments. Though the government had initially planned to de-escalate the number of beds from 8,211 to 3,206, officials said no formal order had been issued.The CM said orders had been issued to test all SARS cases for Covid-19 and H1N1. While 2,612 tests were done on Wednesday, Kejriwal said the number can be increased up to one lakh.He, however, said there was a need to increase Covid vaccine coverage. The CM said while most people in all categories and age groups have taken the second dose, only 24% have so far taken the booster dose. “Even when our teams of doctors went to give the precautionary dose, people refused. I appeal to everyone to take the precautionary dose,” he said.Accepting shortage of oxygen during the second wave, he said the government had now made adequate arrangements in case the demand increased. Kejriwal said Delhi had enhanced its capacity to store liquid oxygen to 928 metric tonnes and there were 6,000 oxygen cylinders, imported from China, in reserve, apart from those available with hospitals.“We faced problems transporting oxygen last time. While some states offered us the oxygen, we did not have tankers to bring it to Delhi. We now have 15 tankers – 12 bought by the government and three private,” he said.Officials said there are 98 PSA (pressure swing adsorption) – oxygen generating plants – in Delhi with a capacity of 116.9 MT. The government also has two cryogenic bottling plants with a capacity of 12.5 MT to refill 1,400 cylinders per day.Kejriwal said Centralised Accident and Trauma Services has a fleet of 380 self-owned and hired ambulances and instructions have been issued to procure more.Watch Covid-19: No need to panic, prepared to deal with situation, says Kejriwal
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/kejriwal-allays-fears-says-govt-ready-if-covid-19-strikes-again/articleshow/96435019.cms
