Third Wave Of COVID-19 In Delhi Now Under Control: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday (December 19) said the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi is under control now, as the city reported over 1,100 fresh cases of the infection at a positivity rate of 1.3 per cent. “There was a time in November when the daily cases went up to nearly 8,600. But, even then it wasn’t a panicky situation in Delhi, and 7,000 beds were available. We fought it all together. The fresh cases count today is 1,133, the official report will soon be out,” he said at an online briefing.

Also Read: COVID-19 New Cases Show A Decline, But Experts Warn Against Complacency As India Gears Up Vaccination In Phases

In a tweet later, the chief minister said, “With the efforts of the people of Delhi, we have effectively and successfully surpassed the third wave of Corona.”

The highest single-day spike in Delhi till date — 8,593 cases — was reported on November 11. As per the health department bulletin released in the evening, the fresh cases count stood at 1,139, taking the tally in the city to 6,15,914. These new cases, the lowest since August 24 (1,061 cases), came out of over 87,000 tests, including 47,460 RT-PCR, conducted on Friday (December 18). The death toll mounted to 10,251 with 32 new fatalities, it said.

The chief minister said the situation in Delhi has improved significantly as the positivity rate had gone up to 15.26 per cent as in early November. It is now down to 1.3 per cent, one of the lowest so far in Delhi, and nationally too, he said, adding that on November 19, the city recorded 131 COVID-19 deaths, the highest single-day fatality count till date, and now the death count has come down as well, and it should go down even further.

“It seems, together all of us have brought the third wave of pandemic in Delhi under control,” CM Kejriwal said, adding the city’s recovery rate is over 96 per cent. The active cases, which were around 45,000 in November, are now down to about 12,000, he added. The active cases tally on Saturday (December 19) dropped to 10,358 from 11,419 the previous day, according to the bulletin.

Also Read: COVID-19 Positivity Rate Drops To Less Than 5 Per Cent, Experts See Less Demand For Hospital Beds In Delhi

“The daily average test count falls in the region of 90,000 in Delhi. Someone had advised us to show improvement in testing figures through fraudulent procedures. Many reports came from other states that fraud testing is taking place. I issued strict orders, and I can say that all our tests figures are genuine,” CM Kejriwal said.

The chief minister said,

Every citizen of Delhi stood beside the government and fought this battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. I salute corona warriors, frontline workers; thank the Centre, political parties and religious organisations for their support and cooperation.

He also said since there is no vaccine yet, people can’t afford to be complacent about the COVID-19 situation here, and advised them to “still be vigilant, observe safety norms like wearing masks and observing social distancing”.

Speaking on the number of tests, the chief minister claimed,

Today, Delhi is conducting 4,500 tests per million population in a day. The number of tests per million population is 670 in Uttar Pradesh, 800 in Gujarat, 4,300 in the US and in 4,800 in the UK.

Also Read: COVID-19 Testing Has Reached ‘Saturation Level’ In Delhi: Health Minister Satyendar Jain

During this fight against COVID-19, “Delhi gave various new techniques to the world like home isolation and plasma therapy to fight against the pandemic”, he further said.

Delhi was the first to announce Rs.1 crore financial assistance to the families of those COVID-19 warriors who died in the line of duty, the chief minister said. The national capital witnessed the third wave of the pandemic in October, he said.

“The citizens of Delhi took the situation very seriously and fought this battle against COVID-19 as a war, and today, I am very happy to say that due to the efforts of the citizens of Delhi, the third wave of Covid pandemic in the capital has also come under control. We can see that the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi is over,” CM Kejriwal was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Delhi government later.

In November, there was the day when the number of new COVID-19 cases in Delhi touched nearly 8,600. Not only in India, but also across the globe, this was the highest number of COVID-19 cases reported in a day from a city, he said.

According to the health bulletin, the number of containment zones in Delhi dropped to 5,991 on Saturday (December 19) from 6,276 the previous day. It said that out of the total number of 18,770 beds in COVID hospitals, 15,655 were vacant. The bulletin said that 267 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights. The number of tests done per million, as on Friday (December 18), was over 4.06 lakh, while the total number of tests conducted is over 77 lakh. The bulletin said 5,95,305 patients have recovered, been discharged or have migrated so far. The number of people in home isolation dropped to 5,943 on Saturday from 6,605 the previous day, it added.

Also Read: As Temperatures Drop, Coronavirus Particles On Surfaces May Remain Infectious Longer: Study

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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