Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said authorities in the national capital are using five weapons in the fight against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the city, which has seen a surge in cases, as he thanked the Centre for lending a helping hand.
Arvind Kejriwal, while addressing a virtual news conference, said increasing the number of beds, testing and isolation, pulse oximeters and oxygen concentrators, plasma therapy and survey and screening has helped the Capital to tackle the respiratory disease.
“When the lockdown was lifted, we estimated that Covid-19 cases will increase. But, the rise in cases was much more. We had two options—either bring back lockdown or fight corona. We took people’s opinions as well who said the lockdown wasn’t an option,” he said.Initially, people had trouble getting beds which in turn increased the number of deaths, the chief minister said.
The Delhi government, he said, decided that all the big hospitals will reserve at least 40% of their beds for patients and then converted hospitals into dedicated Covid-19 facilities. Hotels have been also attached with hospitals to ramp up the number of beds, he said. “The number of beds has increased significantly in the last one week. There are 13,500 beds in Delhi right now and of which 6,500 are occupied,” Kejriwal said.