'Prep on for 3rd wave, vax running out fast'
New Delhi: Even as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hoped that the current wave of the pandemic had peaked and said on Monday that his government is ramping up health infrastructure to deal with an even worse wave, the Delhi government publicly announced that it had days of vaccines left because the Centre was blocking its supply, orders for which were placed weeks ago.
After visiting a 500-ICU bedded facility starting at the Ramlila ground near the GTB Hospital from today (Monday), the CM said the city should definitely be preparing for the "third wave". He said that the current wave had reported up to 28,000 cases a day, putting the "entire infrastructure here under duress".
"However, the scale at which we are preparing our infrastructure, and the scale at which we are executing the same, even if 30,000 cases are to come up in the next wave, we are ready to deal with it," he said.
The CM said, "I hope the peak has passed, I hope the cases reduce in the coming days but after being in the Government and as the Chief Minister of Delhi, I would not want to give any concessions. From my end, I'd like complete preparations in place, should the cases suddenly begin to increase from tomorrow. Nobody can predict anything about this. If the cases begin to increase, we are prepared and the people need not be worried."
Meanwhile, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who was on rounds with the CM to take stock of bed augmentation on Monday said Delhi had only one day's Covaxin stock left and its Covishield doses would last for just three to four days. "Covaxin doses can last up to one day only, while Covishield doses can last up to three to four days," Jain told reporters after reviewing preparations at Guru Teg Bahadur COVID Care Centre at Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in central Delhi. Around 39 lakh doses have been administered in the national capital so far.
"The number of cases has reduced from around 28,000 to 13,000 now. The positivity rate has come down from a high of 36 per cent to around 20 per cent," Jain said adding that there's no room for any leniency and urged everyone to keep their guard up.
In fact, CM Kejriwal said, "We can vaccinate the entire Delhi in the next 3 months. Experts all around the world believe that in the UK, the US, where cases declined, vaccines have played a major role. If we can vaccinate our people on a large scale, then probably we can be saved from the Third Wave." He said, "There is a paucity of supply. We have placed orders with the company, but we believe that the Central government is responsible for allotment because we receive letters from the Central government pertaining to the allotment. It is my humble request to the Central government to give us as many vaccines as possible. This is not a time for politics, but to help everyone by working together."
