Delhi Model Is Being Discussed In India and Abroad: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal On Decreasing Coronavirus Cases Trend In National Capital

New Delhi: “The COVID-19 situation in the national capital is improving every single day and the Delhi model is now being discussed and lauded across India and abroad,” said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday, when Delhi for the first time in the last two months, reported the lowest daily increase with 613 fresh coronavirus cases. The chief minister further said, “Today the recovery rate in Delhi is 88 per cent, only 9 per cent of the people are ill now and 2-3 per cent of the people have died. There is a decline in the number of deaths.”

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According to the ministry of health and family welfare data, Delhi has reported 1,31,219 coronavirus cases till date, of which, 1,16,372 cases have successfully recovered and around 10,000 cases remain active. CM Arvind Kejriwal added,

In June, Delhi had climbed to the second spot on the list of worst-hit states by the pandemic. But today around 1.16 lakh patients in Delhi have recovered so far and 1,497 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours alone. Due to the hard-work and mindfulness of two crore people in Delhi, the situation is now improving. Looking at the other side, while there has been a surge in COVID-19 cases across the world, there has been a drop in the numbers in our city, it is a positive sign.

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Further talking about the COVID-19 infrastructure across various hospitals in the national capital, the chief minister said,

As of now, there’s an arrangement of 15,500 beds at hospitals in Delhi. Only 2,800 Covid-19 patients remain at these hospitals while 12,500 beds are vacant. Moreover, Delhi was at the second top spot in terms of coronavirus active cases, today, we are at 10th position.

Urging people to still follow COVID guidelines, CM Arvind Kejriwal signed off with an appeal, he said, “Yet, I appeal, please wear masks in public places. The situation can deteriorate at any time.”

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NDTV reporter Akshay Kumar Dongare also visited one of the largest COVID facility in the national capital in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital for an on-ground overview of the coronavirus cases in the national capital. He found that at the COVID centre all beds were empty, doctors of the hospital informed NDTV that for the past two weeks no patients have been admitted in this COVID centre. Talking about the paradigm shift in Delhi’s coronavirus scenario, Dr Rajat Jain from Doctor For You, an NGO that was taking care of the COVID facility at LNJP hospital, added,

When we started this centre at the LNJP hospital, the whole idea was to reduce the burden from the hospital and decrease the COVID patient count. But now luckily, with the efforts from all the authorities, we are finally seeing a decline in coronavirus cases. The recovery rate has increased a lot, yet, I feel it is too early to say that Delhi has succeeded in fighting this battle against coronavirus. For example, look at Kerala, it had very few cases and it was the talk of the town and was also considered a model state in this fight, but now, the state has started to see a surge in COVID-19 cases. So, one cannot really predict if one area or state has succeeded in fighting coronavirus, but definitely, statistics of coronavirus is a very positive sign in the national capital. Also, it is just not because of the government, we are seeing such positive numbers, yes, the government has done a lot of things, but it is a collective win, people of the city have also followed the rules and regulations well.

NDTV also spoke to some experts to know about Delhi’s coronavirus status, Dr Prabhat Jha, a global health expert said,

It can be a possibility that Delhi has flattened the coronavirus curve. But, if that is true or not that can only be depicted from next week if the death rates in the national capital also start to show a massive decline. Because what we have seen globally, once the state or city has reached its peak, the infection rate decline and then after one week there is also a decreasing trend in the death rates.

Highlighting the importance of doing balance testing in terms of RT-PCR and antigen testing and stressing on the point that every government in India should clearly specify the results of the test and the combination they are using, Health Researcher Anant Bhan said,

It is good that India is increasing its test per day, but what we have seen is that no government or state is mentioning how many tests have been conducted specifying the type of the tests done. If authorities are doing more of antigen testing and less of RT-PCR testing then it is a problem, antigen testing results can only be taken into account if the government is following up on that test result with RT-PCR to be sure if the test result is negative or not. Whereas in Delhi, we have seen, that the government has decreased its RT-PCR testing in past few months and has increased antigen testing, now that is an issue until we know if the government is actually following up the antigen test with RT-PCR. The testing should be balanced and only then we can say that the state or city has been able to flatten the coronavirus curve.

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The Delhi High Court on Monday as well asked the AAP government on why it was going with Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT), which has a high rate of false-negative results, as the primary test of COVID-19 infection.

To that, the AAP government has responded saying that the health department was strictly adhering to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines which say that people testing negative for Rapid Antigen Testing but showing influenza-like illness (ILI) have to undergo RT/PCR. The stand was opposed by advocate Rakesh Malhotra, whose plea for increasing of the testing numbers in the national capital and getting speedy results was being heard by the court.

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign is an extension of the five-year-old Banega Swachh India initiative helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. It aims to spread awareness about critical health issues facing the country. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign highlights the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children to prevent maternal and child mortality, fight malnutrition, stunting, wasting, anaemia and disease prevention through vaccines. Importance of programmes like Public Distribution System (PDS), Mid-day Meal Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyan and the role of Aganwadis and ASHA workers are also covered. Only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and become a Swasth or healthy India. The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene.