 "Arvind Kejriwal")
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reserve 1,000 ICU beds for Delhiites in Centre-run hospitals like AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital as he underlined that the high severity of the third wave of COVID-19 cases in the national capital is due to many factors with pollution being a significant one.
During a COVID-19 review meeting convened by Modi, Kejriwal said if the central government reserves these ICU beds in its hospitals in the city for the people of Delhi amid a surge in coronavirus case, "it will be a great support to us".
He said Delhi saw the peak of 8,600 coronavirus infections on November 10 during the third wave and since then, the number of cases as well as the positivity rate are steadily decreasing.
The chief minister hoped that this decreasing trend would continue in the national capital.
During the meeting, Kejriwal said that the Delhi government is not concerned about the non-ICU COVID beds since it has an adequate number of such beds.
According to a statement, Kejriwal told Modi that out of the total ICU beds available across the city, around 3,500 are occupied and 724 are still vacant.
Modi interacted via video-conferencing with the chief ministers of the states that are witnessing a surge in the number of coronavirus cases to review the pandemic situation.
"Home Minister Amit Shah is helping in increasing the ICU beds, but if the central government decides to reserve 1,000 beds for the people of Delhi in central government hospitals like Safdarjung and AIIMS, it will be a great support to us.
"We are thankful for all the help that we and the people of Delhi have received from the central government during the entire epidemic," Kejriwal said during the meeting.
Delhi recorded 4,454 fresh COVID-19 cases and a positivity rate of 11.94 per cent on Monday, while 121 more fatalities pushed the death toll due to the disease to 8,512 in the city.
This was the sixth time in 12 days that the daily number of deaths crossed the 100-mark in the national capital.
Authorities reported 121 deaths due to COVID-19 on Sunday, 111 on Saturday, 118 on Friday, 131 on November 18, the highest till date, and 104 on November 12.
Kejriwal also said that several factors were instrumental in making the third wave of coronavirus in Delhi "more dangerous", adding that increased pollution levels in the city recently played a big role.
"The pollution from stubble burning in the neighbouring states has been one of the major reasons. The Delhi government has recently induced a solution to the issue of stubble burning with the help of the Pusa Agricultural Institute.
The government has used the bio-decomposer technology developed by Pusa Institute across the farmlands in Delhi, which has converted the straw on the fields into manure," he added.
Kejriwal also demanded the intervention of the prime minister to resolve the issue of stubble burning with the help of bio-decomposer technology.
He said, "We want that under your leadership, the chief ministers of Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana should work together as a team to eliminate stubble burning."
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal ordered for immediate procurement of 1,200 BiPAP machines for the new ICU beds being added in the national capital this week.
The move will allow immediate operationalisation of the new ICU beds.
A total of 1,200 BiPAP machines will be procured immediately from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the official said.
On Monday, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain attributed the high COVID-19 death rate in the city to the pollution caused by stubble-burning and expected a downtrend in it in the next two-three weeks.
"There was heavy pollution due to stubble-burning amid the COVID-19 pandemic and it came as a double attack. Since the pollution due to stubble-burning is less now, the downtrend in deaths will be there in a few weeks," he had said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
