Delhi: Kejriwal lists 5 weapons to combat COVID, says 'will emerge victorious over time'

Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday asserted that Delhi is fighting a difficult war against coronavirus pandemic and will emerge victorious, but it will take time for it. He said the state is all prepared to fight the battle against the Coronavirus with its five powerful weapons. The national capital has witnessed a significant increase in the number of beds over the past 1 week, which Kejriwal termed as the state's first weapon against the COVID battle.

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"During the first week of June, we witnessed a shortage of beds and testings. When there was a shortage of beds the mortality rate increased in the state. We had two options, one was to implement lockdown and the second option was to fight against the virus. People chose to fight. In order to win the battle against the virus, the government prepared five weapons," Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said while addressing the media.

So far Delhi has a total of 13,500 beds out of which 6,000 are occupied and 7,500 are still vacant. The state government is still trying to manage more and more beds in case of a future emergency, CM said. The govt has also reserved 40% beds in of big hospitals to treat COVID patients and some private and government hospitals in the state have been fully converted to COVID dedicated hospitals, he added.

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The second weapon mentioned by Kejriwal is testing and isolation. 20,000 tests are being conducted on regular bases the highest in the country, the CM said. "We are testing people, identifying patients with COVID symptoms and isolate them," Kejriwal said. He also expressed his gratitude to the Centre govt for supporting the state government in conducting rapid testing.

Kejriwal said that Delhi's third weapon against the COVID battle is oximeters and oxygen concentrators. 4,000 oxygen concentrators have been purchased so that all government beds have sufficient oxygen supply at the time of emergency.

"During COVID crisis, people have lost their lives due to shortage of oxygen. To avert such a situation, we have sent oximeters to all the patients getting treated at home and asked the patients to continuously monitor their oxygen level. In case of any irregularities in the oxygen level, people have been asked to contact the authorities who supplies oxygen to them and get them admitted in hospital," Kejriwal said.

The successful use of Plasma therapy in the state is the fourth weapon and the last weapon stated by the chief minister is survey and screening. A serological survey of 20,000 people will start on Saturday. he informed.

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Watch the full address here:

READ | Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal launches video-call facility for COVID-19 patients at LNJP hospital