3,594 fresh cases as CM looks for plan to stop spread of new strains

New Delhi: Delhi on Friday reported 3,594 new Covid-19 cases amid the fourth wave of the pandemic, a significant rise from Thursday's 2,790 new cases, even as the daily positivity rate of infections shot up to over 4 per cent.

Amid these rising cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met with senior officials of the Health Department on Friday to strategise the next steps and asserted that his government would not call for another lockdown in the city.

The stages in which the number of ICU beds in the private and government hospitals would be increased has been planned and will be implemented as and when required, a senior health official said.

He also said that the CM has asked officials to come up with a plan on how to control the spread of the new strain of cases if the need arises. Hospital management and health management system working was also discussed, according to the same official.

"In today's meeting, we looked into the provision for additional requirements for hospitals in case people fall sick, and need to get admitted into the hospital," Kejriwal said.

The provision of ambulance, hospital, ventilator, oxygen, and ICU were discussed and an action plan has been chalked out. The CM said, " if we fall sick there must be ample facility in the hospital and a good treatment process." He added that adequate measures like provision of ambulance, and first aid should be done.

While the official health bulletin on Friday said that of the over 11,000 active patients in the city, over 6,000 are recovering under home isolation and only around 2,200 patients are being treated at hospitals and COVID-19 care centres. After the meeting with senior officials, the CM addressed a press conference, where he said that his government is testing, tracing, and isolating aggressively and wherever there seems to be a need for demarcation of containment zones, it will do so in order to curb the growing spread of the virus.

Friday's data from the Delhi government showed that it had conducted over 87,500 COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours and that a total of over 1.47 crore tests had been conducted since the pandemic began.

The CM, however, requested that people continue wearing their masks, follow social distancing, and wash their hands frequently to tackle the further spread of the virus.

The last time Delhi had reported over 3,000 new cases was on December 8 last year, since when cases had started declining consistently in the city.